The Philadelphia Phillies are entering the 2025 Major League Baseball season with Jordan Romano set to be the team’s closer.
Philadelphia signed Romano to a one-year, $8.5 million deal in free agency to be the team’s closer. However, MLB insider Dan O’Dowd of MLB Network predicts that top pitching prospect Andrew Painter will be the Phillies closer by the end of the year.
“If Andrew Painter, who I think is the best pitching prospect in the game, ends up getting called up to the Phillies, works in the middle part of the pen,” O’Dowd said. “But, ends up being their closer and the missing piece on that team as they make a deep postseason run.”
Painter was selected 13th overall in the 2021 MLB draft but has missed all of 2023 and 2024 due to injuries.
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However, Painter is inching closer to a return, as he will pitch in extended spring training games in the next few weeks. Once he’s fully ramped up, Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said during spring training that he expects Painter to be in the MLB this season.
“I do think he’ll be pitching at the big league level at some point in ‘25,” Dombrowski said. “He’s not going to be able to go out there like a big league starter and pitch every five or six days and pitch a whole season and have 180 innings. He’s going to be limited, much more than that.”
Painter went 6-2 with a 1.56 ERA in 22 starts in 2022 between A, A+, and AA.
The Phillies open their 2025 MLB season on the road on March 27 against the Washington Nationals.
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