Category: Sports

ATLANTA — Andrew Painter’s rookie season has been about growth.

It’s been about struggling, failing, learning from it, and improving. It’s been about starts like Sunday’s, where the 23-year-old didn’t have his best stuff or command but still found a way to hold the Braves to one run.

But when the regular season ends after the next 12 games, the priority shifts to winning above everything. And Painter could see his role shift, too.

In a best-of-three wild-card series, the Phillies would only need a maximum of three starters. In the best-of-five National League Division Series, clubs typically use a four-man rotation. If they get there, that will leave the Phillies with some decisions to make about how they will set up their starting pitching.

While Jesús Luzardo missed his last start due to shoulder stiffness, both he and the Phillies have insisted that it was a mostly precautionary measure to ensure he’s healthy for the postseason. Barring any setbacks, it will likely be a tough decision between Luzardo, Zack Wheeler, and Cristopher Sánchez for the Phillies’ Game 1 starter.

That leaves Aaron Nola, who has never thrown a pitch in relief in his 12-year career, and Painter.

Could the rookie be an option for the postseason bullpen?

According to interim manager Don Mattingly, the club has not gotten that far yet. The current focus in the clubhouse and the front office is just making the postseason, as the wild-card race continues to heat up. Any potential playoff rotation is not something Mattingly or president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski have raised.

“It’s not something we’ve talked about at this point,” Mattingly said. “I think Dave’s a lot like me. He doesn’t really want to start talking about what-ifs, and we got to take care of business now. Don’t want to put the cart in front of the horse. So right now, we haven’t really had any kind of planning on what anything would look like at this point.”

Still, Mattingly did not outright reject the suggestion that Painter could be an option for the playoff bullpen.

“I think we have to look at all options, and try to put your best guys together,” he said.

If the Phillies do ultimately determine that to be their best course of action, Painter said he will be fine with it.

“I trust in what this organization wants, and whoever’s calling the shots, I’m bought in on whatever they want,” Painter said.

He has never been a reliever at any point in his career. The only times Painter has ever come out of the bullpen were an April appearance where he missed the first two innings due to a migraine, and an outing in June where the Phillies tried using an opener for him.

In high school and the minor leagues, Painter has never been anything but a starter.

Even so, he could see some potential advantages. It’s possible his stuff could play up even more if he’s not focused on giving the team length.

“[I’d] be able to rear back a little bit and let it eat a little bit more,” Painter said. “I’m sure velo would tick up a little bit, and we’ll be able to just empty the tank.”

The Phillies saw something similar firsthand last season, and it was instrumental in their downfall in the NLDS. The Dodgers converted rookie starter Roki Sasaki to a reliever for the postseason, and he recorded saves in Game 1 and 2 against the Phillies. In the decisive Game 4, Sasaki held off the Phillies from the eighth to the 10th inning, until Los Angeles walked off the game — and the series — on Orion Kerkering’s error in the 11th.

Sasaki became the Dodgers’ postseason closer, and had a 0.84 ERA in 10⅔ playoff innings to help Los Angeles to its second consecutive World Series title.

It was a stunning turnaround for a pitcher who had had an inconsistent rookie season before that. Sasaki was regarded as MLB’s top prospect when he left Japan to sign with the Dodgers before the 2025 season, but the transition wasn’t always smooth. He landed on the injured list in May with a shoulder impingement, and during an extended minor league rehab assignment saw a steep, and concerning, drop-off in velocity.

The Dodgers worked with Sasaki to make small changes to his mechanics that September. By the time he was ready to return to the majors, the only place for him was in the bullpen. There, he became a weapon.

Against the Phillies in the 2025 NLDS, his fastball topped out at 101 mph. He paired it with a lethal off-speed pitch with staggering vertical drop, sometimes called a splitter and sometimes called a forkball. And in the three times they saw him that series, forget scoring a run, the Phillies mustered only one baserunner.

Sasaki and Painter are different pitchers, certainly, but it’s hard not to draw parallels between them. When this unfolded, Sasaki was 23, the same age Painter is currently. And Painter also had an inconsistent start to his rookie year after being billed as a probable fixture in the Phillies’ rotation.

He was sent down to triple A in June, not due to injury, but to find a solution to his struggles. He came back with improved mechanics, a fastball that had life again, and a revamped change-up. His first-half ERA was 7.06, but it has been 3.58 since the All-Star break. And as he piles up encouraging starts, it’s clear Painter can be a real factor in the Phillies’ postseason plans.

“I feel like he’s doing a great job of keeping his composure out there and finding a way to work through it, and that’s what it’s about,” said Kyle Schwarber. “And you can only praise him for that. He’s doing such a great job and at such a young age, and I think that we should all be really proud of that.”

Last year, the Dodgers bullpen was their biggest question mark heading into the playoffs. Sasaki helped rescue a unit that had been hampered by injuries and underperformance.

But the Phillies wouldn’t need Painter to be their closer. That role is covered by one of the top relief arms in the game in Jhoan Duran. But all year, the bridge between the Phillies’ starters to Duran has been rickety. In September, the bullpen has a 5.88 ERA, which is fifth-worst in baseball this month.

Perhaps the rookie could be part of the solution.

“If that’s something that’s going to help the team win,” Painter said, “I’m willing to do it.”