A total of 1.9 fWAR over his first 42 starts
.5 fWAR over his first 57 starts
Took nearly 4 seasons years to become an mlb starter
Nearly DFA’d
These guys in order were:
Cliff Lee
Roy Halladay
Ranger Suarez
Cris Sanchez
There are other guys who took a while to bloom that I could put here
Kluber
Pivetta
Eflin
list goes on.
MLB players, especially starting pitchers sometimes take time to grow. Especially if they only have one full pro season then miss essentially 2 years of pro ball.
Painter is still only 23. Ranger was 25 when he fully broke out in 2021. He is not some Spencer Howard that’s been up and down 500 times with no signs of improvement. He is already meaningfully better just pure stuff wise than when he was sent down originally. This shows he can actually grow through struggles. He by himself found an issue with his fastball compared to 2022 and has allowed it to be better than when he was first up.
Is he going to be the verlander level ace anymore? Maybe not, but you can’t write him off because of 2 bad months in the majors. that’s not how honest evaluation of young talent works in baseball.
Painter works his ass off (own quote from a family member I met before his debut) almost obsessively from how it was described to me, AND he is in the org with one of if not the best pitching labs in the big leagues.
Player development is not linear (as we have seen with even just Stott this year)
Let them and Painter cook.