Top Phillies prospect Andrew Painter continues to check ‘a lot of boxes’ on his path to The Show

CLEVELAND — Now that Andrew Painter has reached triple A, a natural question will follow.

How long will he stay there?

The Phillies maintain that they aren’t deviating from their initial timetable, loosely defined in the offseason as “July-ish” by president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, for bringing the 22-year-old top prospect to the majors.

» READ MORE: Andrew Painter pitches three scoreless innings in triple-A debut, moving a step closer to joining Phillies

By then, the Phillies expect Painter will have built up his arm strength but not yet reached the requisite cap on his innings after missing the last two seasons with a torn ligament in his right elbow that necessitated Tommy John surgery.

Painter threw 60 pitches through three scoreless innings Thursday night in his triple-A debut. He scraped 98 mph with his fastball. He struck out five batters, all with his curveball. He threw back-to-back changeups, an emerging offspeed weapon.

And although Painter walked the bases loaded with two outs in the third inning to shorten his outing, the report that manager Rob Thomson received was mostly positive.

“He did throw a lot of strikes other than the three walks,” Thomson said Friday before the Phillies opened a three-game series in Cleveland. “The fastball played. A lot of whiffs on the curveball and slider. Got ahead in the count. He checked a lot of boxes last night.”

Thomson said Painter is slated to throw 75 pitches (or five innings) in a start next week in Syracuse, N.Y. He will continue to start once a week in Lehigh Valley. Once he reaches about 90 pitches in a start, it will be about maintaining arm strength rather than building it.

Painter is up to 14⅓ innings in five minor-league starts between Lehigh Valley and low-A Clearwater. If he averaged six innings per start over the next seven weeks, he would get to approximately 56 innings by the beginning of July.

The rest of Painter’s allotment, a number the Phillies have not shared, could then be saved for the majors. But Thomson said Painter’s ETA in the majors will be based on more than merely an innings total.

» READ MORE: Andrew Painter is healthy and pitching again. Here’s how the Phillies are planning for his return in 2025.

“Years ago, you’d put innings on it because nobody knew how to build a guy [up], or what’s the right amount of innings coming off injury,” Thomson said. “Now, we have ways to measure things — extension and velocity and spin rate, things like that. I don’t think you could ever put a hard cap on an innings limit at this point."

Meanwhile, Painter will continue to get much-needed reps against a higher level of hitters. After using the Arizona Fall League and the first month of the season in Clearwater to get a feel for being back on the mound, these next few weeks are about competing.

And regardless of when Painter gets to the majors, Thomson said he will be “in that top tier” of pitching prospects that he has been around.

“It’s the stuff, the body, just the package that he brings,” Thomson said. “He’s very mature for his age. I think he’s very intelligent. He’s got a lot of really good qualities to him.”

Never mind that center fielder Brandon Marsh got two hits, including the tiebreaking RBI double in the 10th inning on Thursday night in Tampa. Johan Rojas started the series opener in Cleveland.

Thomson scripted the allocation of playing time in center field earlier in the week, with Marsh and Rojas alternating starts.

“I think we’ll stay with that,” Thomson said. “Both these guys are playing well right now.”

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Ideally, the Phillies would use the lefty-hitting Marsh against most right-handed starters and righty-swinging Rojas against lefties. But they’re in the midst of facing six righties in a row. They expect to finally see a lefty, the Cardinals’ Matthew Liberatore, Monday night at Citizens Bank Park.

Marsh is 5-for-11 with two doubles since returning from a right hamstring strain. Before that, he had been hitless in 31 consecutive plate appearances.

Rojas entered the weekend on a 16-for-51 (.314) roll, with a .790 OPS in his last 18 games.

Bryson Stott led off for the 21st time this season. Entering the game, he ranked second in the majors in pitches per plate appearance (4.51), trailing only the Dodgers’ Max Muncy (4.58). ... Ranger Suárez (0-0, 17.18 ERA) is scheduled for his second start of the season at 6:10 p.m. Saturday against Guardians righty Tanner Bibee (3-2, 4.26).