The Philadelphia Phillies’ highly touted 23-year-old pitcher’s rookie season is not going as planned. As the Phillies remain heavily dependent on starting pitching to record wins under Don Mattingly, inconsistencies from their rookie starter remain an area of concern. His problem areas became glaring against the Chicago White Sox on Saturday. As Andrew Painter took his seventh loss, MLB analysts offered him the blunt truth.

“He (Painter) is 1-7, 6.21 ERA. The other day, he gave up six runs in 4.2 innings,” remarked Todd Zolecki on The Phillies Show. “The fastball was a major issue.”

Andrew Painter wields an impressive five-pitch mix, headlined by a fastball averaging 96-97 mph. Painter’s four-seamer tops out at 98.9 mph. Despite being impressive on paper, this fastball has been his biggest problem this season. The issues with control and command are such that Painter is throwing his four-seamer less. On Saturday, it accounted for only 16% of his pitches, yet Colson Montgomery’s home run came from one. Opposing hitters are slugging .585 and batting .390 against Painter’s four-seamer this season—elite contact rates that expose his command struggles.

With no outs and only one swing-and-miss from Painter’s fastball, Zolecki summed up his numbers, saying, “That’s problematic.”

During the Phillies’ 6-3 loss to the White Sox, Painter gave up 8 hits in 4.2 innings, half of which came from his fastball. He also allowed 6 earned runs and 2 walks. His command issues continued as Painter struggled to keep it in the zone.

“Just hard to command the ball with that pitch when I don’t really know what the pitch is going to do,” Painter told MLB.com after the match.

While Mattingly weighs options, veteran Ruben Amaro Jr. has pinpointed the mechanical root Painter needs to work on, including his extension.

“One is extension, and we talked about this before. It’s one of the shortest extensions of any pitcher this size,” stated Amaro Jr on the podcast. “And two, part of that is just driving the ball downhill. And he sort of pitches like a 5’10 pitcher. And so the hitters get a really, really good look at the fastball.”

Painter’s recent Tommy John surgery has affected his pitch movement. Despite being a 6-foot-7 man, Painter’s extension (six and a half feet) is around the league-average. He is generating only 9.9% whiff rate from the four-seamer, which should have been his biggest strength for recording strikeouts.

Painter has recorded only one win so far this season. After surrendering 11 homers, his 6.21 ERA is the worst among rookie starters this season, per The Athletic. Now, the Phillies’ coaching staff has to help Painter fix his issues.

While analysts pondered whether an off-day could help Painter regain his bearings, Don Mattingly has already given his verdict.

Don Mattingly on skipping Andrew Painter’s start

On Saturday, Andrew Painter hit a new low as he struggled from the very start. Four out of the six runs he allowed came from the first inning itself, as Painter struggled to locate his pitches. He needed 42 pitches to end the first frame.

In such a scenario, Don Mattingly was asked whether the Phillies could skip Painter’s next scheduled start, giving him some time to group. Though the Dodgers did it with Shohei Ohtani during his hitting slump, Mattingly can’t do the same for Painter.

“Not really,” Mattingly stated, per MLB.com. “I think the situation we’re in with our starters, we don’t sit here with four or five guys in Triple-A that you can bring up at any time and fill in a spot. We want to make sure we take care of all our starters with those off-days.”

While rotation is a major strength for the Phillies, they also suffer from a lack of starting pitching depth at an organizational level. The Phillies are mainly relying on Cristopher Sanchez, Zack Wheeler, Jesus Luzardo, Aaron Nola, and Painter to carry the rotation. With Triple-A Lehigh also not offering any reliable options, resting Painter is not an option for Mattingly to explore. Hence, Painter needs to fix his issues at the major league level while pitching through some high-stakes games.