After Wednesday’s 12-4 defeat to the Miami Marlins where Andrew Painter surrendered six runs in just two innings of work, the Phillies will be shaking up the back of their rotation by optioning Andrew Painter to AAA.
The Phillies have tried everything with Painter. They’ve tweaked his usage in certain starts to limit fastball damage, they’ve
used an opener, and they gave him 14 appearances to figure this out. With a 7.06 ERA in 65.0 innings pitched, nothing stuck long enough.
Through roughly the first two and a half months of the season, the Phillies have cycled through their number five and six starting pitching options from the big league roster. They went into the season with Taijuan Walker making starts with Zack Wheeler injured but he was released after just 22.2 innings of work because he had an ERA over 9.
Now with Painter out, there is no clear answer for what the Phillies will do on the rotation’s fifth turn. Matt Gelb wrote that former Atlanta Brave and Chicago White Sox Bryse Wilson had triggered his upward mobility clause in his minor league contract, which could force the Phillies to add him to the roster. In 54.1 innings with the Iron Pigs, Wilson carries a 6.29 ERA with 2.76 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
Alan Rangel is already on the 40-man roster and pitched for the Phillies earlier this year when they had Kyle Backhus open for the aforementioned Walker in the middle of their ten game losing streak. Rangel has looked solid, albeit not super inspiring with the Pigs, carrying a 3.74 ERA in 65.0 innings.
Maybe the Phillies try bullpen games to patch things until the trade deadline. The bullpen lost a key leverage arm in Brad Keller to the injured list but have built up plenty of depth through minor league signings and waiver claims. They have the options to make it work even if it’s not an ideal scenario to go through every fifth day.
Whatever path the Phillies go down, it will be without Andrew Painter, as he heads down to Lehigh Valley to figure out who he is moving forward.
