Phillies prospect Painter dazzles with heat in spring debut
FORT MYERS, Fla. (CBS) -- The stage hardly looked too big for pitcher Andrew Painter.
The hard-throwing Philadelphia Phillies prospect's fastball touched 99 mph in his spring training debut against Minnesota on Wednesday. The 19-year-old allowed one run and three hits with a strikeout in two innings, a solid first step as he attempts to crack Philadelphia's starting rotation before his 20th birthday on April 10.
The 6-foot-7 Painter showcased a little bit of why the Phillies are so high on him. The 13th overall pick in the 2021 amateur draft nearly reached 100 mph on the radar gun while facing Carlos Correa in the first inning, though Correa did reach on an infield single.
"You know, (Correa) is pretty good at what he does," Painter joked with reporters afterward. "So just trying to get by him."
Painter threw 18 of 29 pitches for strikes and fanned Max Kepler with a 90 mph cutter. He ran into a bit of trouble in the second inning after allowing consecutive singles to Christian Vázquez and Nick Gordon before giving up a run on a sacrifice fly. The game ended in a 4-4 tie.
Phillies catcher Garrett Stubbs praised Painter's poise, which Painter attributed in part to having played at Hammond Stadium in Fort Myers while pitching for Philadelphia's Class A affiliate last year.
"I felt like we didn't even get to the point where he can probably get to, but he did really well," Stubbs said. "You saw the kind of repertoire. He can spin the ball. He was throwing strikes. Obviously a really good heater and I don't even think today's heater was as good as it normally is. So I think we have even more to see from him."
Painter sprinted through Philadelphia's system in 2022, going 6-2 with a 1.48 ERA in 26 appearances spread across two Class A squads and Double-A Reading.
Swing swift
The early returns on Major League Baseball's decision to restrict shifts are promising.
Runs and batting average were both up through the first wave of games compared to spring training a year ago. Players were hitting .272 through Feb. 28, with an average of 11.9 runs scored. That's up from a batting average of .259 and 10.6 runs through the same period in 2022.
The uptick in offense does not appear to be affecting pace of play, thanks in large part to the introduction of the pitch clock. The average game time through Feb. 28 was 2 hours, 39 minutes. That's down from 3:01 over the same stretch last spring training.
Umpires remain aggressive in enforcing timing rules. Cleveland shortstop Jose Tena was called out for not engaging the pitcher until there were less than eight seconds left on the clock.