PHILADELPHIA — Dave Dombrowski did not frame Andrew Painter’s demotion as a crisis. He framed it as a reset.
The Phillies did not send Painter to Triple-A Lehigh Valley because they stopped believing in him. They sent him there because they no longer believed the major-league rotation was the right place for him to keep working through what has become a very public struggle.
“He’s been struggling, so we think that the best thing for him is to get reset, to work on some things with the pitching people,” Dombrowski said Thursday.
Painter was optioned after allowing six runs in two innings Wednesday against the Marlins, the latest rough turn in an uneven rookie season. The Phillies had stayed patient. They had given him chances. They had lived with the inconsistency because the talent is obvious and the long-term stakes are significant.
But eventually, the work had to move somewhere else.
“Difficult, but I’ve sent many good pitchers down, many good players down,” Dombrowski said. “They go down, and they get reset. They come back and do well for you. That’s what our goals are, and we think will happen.”
Dombrowski said the Phillies still view Painter as a pitcher with a bright future, but they believe the best thing for him now is to get away from the pressure of major-league starts and focus on the mechanical issues that have kept him from finding consistency.
The focus will be on Painter’s delivery.
“Most of it’s delivery-oriented,” Dombrowski said.
At his best, Painter drives more directly toward the plate. When he does that, the Phillies believe his fastball has more life, his command improves and his secondary pitches play better. But too often, Dombrowski said, Painter has been spinning off in his delivery instead of staying through the baseball.
“It’s also going more directly towards the plate rather than spinning off,” Dombrowski said.
That has created the inconsistency the Phillies have seen from start to start — and sometimes from inning to inning. Dombrowski said Painter has shown signs of progress during side work, and even flashed quality pitches during Wednesday’s outing. The issue has been carrying those adjustments into games.
“You see it at times,” Dombrowski said. “He threw some pitches yesterday that were outstanding, but not on a consistent basis.”
The plan now is not to rush Painter immediately into Lehigh Valley’s rotation. Dombrowski said Painter is expected to throw a couple of side sessions first before the Phillies determine when he will pitch in an actual game.
“He’s going to throw a couple sides to start off, and then we’ll determine when you put him into the actual game,” Dombrowski said. “I don’t know if it’ll be a week or 10 days, but it’ll be sometime in that time frame.”
In other words, this is not a simple demotion where Painter reports to Triple-A and takes the ball on his normal turn. The Phillies want the work to come first.
Dombrowski said Painter understood the decision. He was disappointed, but the disappointment was more about his performance than the move itself.
“He said, ‘I have to get better. I have to do better. I understand that. I’m ready to go out and do what I need to do,’” Dombrowski said.
That remains the organizational belief.
Painter is still coming off Tommy John surgery. He is still young. His fastball still reaches the upper 90s. The Phillies still see the makings of a high-end major-league starter. But the ability to command that stuff, repeat his delivery and remain under control mechanically has not been there often enough.
“I think he’s going to be a very good pitcher,” Dombrowski said. “It’s difficult. He’s coming off a situation where he had major Tommy John surgery. Sometimes it takes a while to come back and be quite as effective.”
The short-term question is what the Phillies do with Painter’s rotation spot.
For now, Dombrowski said Bryse Wilson will move into the bullpen. Wilson was added from Triple-A Lehigh Valley on Thursday, along with right-hander Seth Johnson, because the Phillies needed arms capable of covering innings after Wednesday’s short start strained the bullpen.
“He’s going into the bullpen as of today, and that’s all we’ve decided,” Dombrowski said of Wilson. “We needed a couple pitchers.”
Dombrowski said the club has not yet decided who will start in Painter’s place when that spot comes up again. A bullpen game is possible, but the Phillies will wait before making that call.
“Could we do it? Yes,” Dombrowski said. “Will we do it? I don’t know.”
The broader issue is rotation depth, and Dombrowski acknowledged what most teams already know by mid-June: finding reliable starting pitching beyond the front of a rotation is difficult.
“We’ve got four that match up with anybody probably in baseball,” Dombrowski said. “Most clubs are searching for their fifth and beyond that.”
Painter was supposed to help solve that.
Instead, he is headed back to Lehigh Valley to reset.
The Phillies also have other roster concerns pressing on them. Brad Keller is on the injured list with forearm inflammation, though Dombrowski said the club is hopeful he can return when eligible.
“He’s got the inflammation,” Dombrowski said. “He’s feeling better already.”
Adolis GarcÃa is headed for surgery. The outfield picture has changed. And with the trade deadline approaching, Dombrowski made it clear that the market has not fully formed yet, with too many teams still close enough to the wild-card race to declare themselves sellers.
“I’ve talked to maybe a couple of clubs that are in that mindset, but most of them are like, wait,” Dombrowski said.
That means the Phillies may have to wait before finding outside help.
They also may have to spend the next few weeks learning more about what they already have. Gabriel Rincones Jr. is expected to get an opportunity in the outfield. The Phillies will see where he fits before making broader decisions.
“He’s going to get every opportunity to contribute,” Dombrowski said.
Dombrowski also did not sound inclined to move Bryce Harper back to right field as part of an outfield solution. He said the Phillies have not discussed that scenario with Harper, and the club would not want to move him back and forth.
“We haven’t talked to him about it,” Dombrowski said. “One thing we wouldn’t do is keep going back and forth.”
So the Phillies move forward with a roster that is still shifting.
Painter is no longer in the rotation. Wilson is in the bullpen, at least for now. Johnson gives them another relief option. Keller is working back. GarcÃa is out. And the Mets are in town.
But the Painter decision is the one that carries the most long-term weight.
The Phillies still believe in the arm. They still believe in the pitcher. They still believe he can be part of what they are building.
They just reached the point where belief was no longer enough to keep running him back out there every fifth day.
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