Breaking: Phillies Prospect Touted as Perfect Fix for…

The Philadelphia Phillies have some questions to answer this winter.

After logging one of the best regular seasons in franchise history, with the most All-Star selections of any team in Major League Baseball, the team was bounced from the postseason after a single win.

One of the biggest offseason questions will involve the starting rotation, even though it was one of baseball’s best in 2024. Starters Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Ranger Suárez and Cristopher Sánchez are locked in to resume their roles next season, but the fifth starting spot is anything but secure.

In the second year of his four-year, $72 million deal with the Phillies, veteran starter Taijuan Walker struggled mightily, posting a 7.10 ERA across 15 starts and finding himself in and out of the rotation. The Phillies might not be able to part ways with him amid such a hefty contract, but his spot in the rotation is up for grabs.

As the team looks to fill out the back-end of the staff, Zachary Rotman of FanSided pointed out that they have “the ideal Taijuan Walker replacement” at hand already in top pitching prospect Andrew Painter.

“Walker proved that the Phillies simply cannot trust him in their rotation,” Rotman wrote. “Fortunately for Philadelphia, they don’t have to look far when it comes to finding an ideal Walker replacement.”

Painter, the team’s number-two ranked prospect and baseball’s number-32 ranked talent, underwent Tommy John surgery last year and has been working toward a return that could see him on the big-league roster sometime in 2025. It’s unclear when he will physically be ready to take on a starter’s workload or when the Phillies might see him as a viable option for the rotation.

But, given Walker’s struggles, Rotman noted that the team offers an ideal situation to call up the top-ranked prospect and answer their rotation question in a bold way.

“Relying on an unproven prospect always has some concern, but when the player he’d be replacing is Walker and with the team having arguably the best rotation in baseball surrounding him, the Phillies shouldn’t think twice about this,” he added. “His upside is too high to overlook, and that fact that he’s in the organization makes it a slam dunk.”