MIAMI — The Phillies opened spring training confident that Andrew Painter could make their opening-day roster. Then they hoped he could just pitch for them this season.
Now one may wonder when the 20-year-old right-hander will drop a hill again.
Painter, Philadelphia’s top pick and the No. 10 baseball player according to the MLB pipeline, is undergoing an evaluation for a “discomfort” in his right elbow, manager Rob Thomson said ahead of Friday’s opener against the Marlins. Thomson would not say what tests Painter needed. He also said he didn’t know when the test results would be available.
But Painter’s recent setback is worrying. On March 1, during his highly anticipated Grapefruit League debut in Fort Myers, Fla., he sprained the proximal ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow. A sprain means the ligament is torn, but Phillies and Painter reps hoped he could avoid the surgery with rest and a slow rehab. The shared confidence came from the fact that Painter suffered a proximal UCL tear and not a distal UCL tear. Essentially, the location of Painter’s injury was important. In one study, 17 of 19 pitchers (89.5 percent) with partial proximal tears returned to pitch without surgery, while only four of 13 pitchers (30.8 percent) with distal tears did.
Painter started hosting bullpen sessions in Clearwater, Florida just over a month ago. Up until this week he was making good progress. He was due to face batsmen for the first time on Tuesday, but that never happened because he felt pain in his elbow.
Painter threw a bullpen session on Wednesday. The pain persisted.
“I’m worried,” Thomson said. “You always worry when guys are sore. We’ll know more when we get the tests back.”
It seems almost certain that Painter will be barred from pitching for the foreseeable future, though Thomson declined to say so.
“We’ll just see,” Thomson said. “Of course we’ll be careful with him, but we’ll see as soon as we have the test results.”
Painter’s agent is Scott Boras, who has expressed concern that the Phillies are pressuring Painter too hard too soon.
“If you have a precocious talent while your physique is growing — if you have elite #1 starter skills — you have to take great precautions to save that skill in case your ability, strength, and physique balance stand,” Boras said at Dodger Stadium in early May. “That timeframe varies from player to player, but the normal thing about it is you see a lot of college pitchers coming into the big leagues at 23 and 24 and 140, 150 innings. This is yours [Max] joker, [Stephen] Strasbourg, [Gerrit] Cole group. Follow these examples.”
For now, Painter, the Phillies and Boras are just hoping for good news.