Andrew Painter hasn't pitched at any level this season as he recovers from the Tommy John surgery that he underwent on July 25, 2023. He has started throwing live batting practice sessions in Clearwater, but it's essentially been a lost season for the No. 1 overall prospect in the Phillies organization.
Still, the Phillies remain bullish on Painter. The latest evidence was buried in a longform story from ESPN 's Buster Olney and Jesse Rogers on the historically-bad season that the Chicago White Sox have had. In the story, the pair of ESPN ers discuss why the White Sox ultimately held onto All-Star lefty Garrett Crochet at the trade deadline.
"The White Sox believed that the Dodgers had enough to make a deal without top catching prospect Dalton Rushing included, but that offer from L.A. never developed. The Phillies turned down the White Sox's request for top pitching prospect Andrew Painter as part of the package. The Braves had lots of pitching to offer, but the White Sox preferred a deal for position players."
It is worth pointing out that in the days leading up to the trade deadline, Crochet signaled that he didn't plan to pitch out of the bullpen to manage his innings in his first full season back from the Tommy John surgery that he had in April of 2022. He, according to Jon Heyman of The New York Post , only would start in the postseason if he had an extension. It never got to that point, as Crochet wasn't traded.
A White Sox source told Olney and Rogers that "the sincere teams remained sincere" on Crochet even after this revelation, with the Phillies, Dodgers and Braves among them. That's in line with a report from Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic in August that the Phillies and Dodgers "made offers for Crochet that the White Sox considered attractive" in the day prior to the July 30 trade deadline. Evidently, it wasn't attractive enough, though.
Crochet was a clunky trade candidate. As much as his stance on not wanting to pitch in the postseason without a new deal might initially seem bizarre, he's already had Tommy John surgery once, and pitched a total of 12 2/3 innings in the majors last year. If a team wanted him to push 200 innings between the regular and postseason, it was fair for him to want to have some financial security in case the drastic workload increase led to another major injury that derailed his career.
Ultimately, Crochet stayed put in Chicago. He's stayed healthy, but hasn't pitched more than four innings in a start since June. His overall numbers are significantly worse in the second half of the season, which, again, isn't shocking considering how little he pitched a year ago.
Before All-Star Break: 6-6, 3.02 ERA, 0.95 WHIP over 107 1/3 innings pitched
After All-Star Break: 0-6, 5.71 ERA, 1.41 WHIP over 34 2/3 innings pitched
The reason why this is all relevant now — beyond just being an interesting "what if?" in 2024 — is that Crochet could very well get traded this winter. If the Phillies were seriously interested in July, there's no reason to believe president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski won't be when the MLB Winter Meetings roll around. Beyond Painter being off the table, it's unclear what the Phillies were willing to offer. They didn't get the deal done, but clearly White Sox general manager Chris Getz was intrigued by what the Phillies put forward. Did that include some combination Aidan Miller, Justin Crawford, Starlyn Caba and Eduardo Tait? Will a similar offer be more interesting to the White Sox in the winter than it was this summer? If the Phillies are interested in Crochet and maybe were willing to give him a contract if they had acquired him in the summer, what does that mean for the long-term future of Ranger Suárez — who can become a free agent after 2025 — in the rotation?
Regardless of how the postseason plays out, Crochet will likely loom over the offseason for the Phillies, unless the organization puts the word out early that they are no longer interested in the 25-year-old.
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