The Phillies are not expected to trade first baseman Ryan Howard before the end of the season, MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki writes. Instead, Howard will finish out the year in Philadelphia, at which point the Phillies will pay a $10MM buyout rather than exercise his $23MM 2017 option.
Zolecki notes that, at this point, the Phillies would likely rather keep Howard, a former franchise player, than trade him for a return that would almost certainly be nominal. As recently as last week, though, they seemed to have at least some hope of trading him, particularly since Howard has hit well recently.
“If I were a playoff team, I’d take notice” of Howard’s recent play, manager Pete Mackanin said last week. Howard has batted a remarkable .394/.444/.909 with five home runs in 36 August plate appearances and also had a .525 slugging percentage in July.
Any consideration of the slugger’s recent hitting, though, would have to be balanced by his performance in the previous several seasons. Howard has batted just .220/.287/.416 since the start of the 2014 season, a line that looks worse when one considers his lack of defensive value. He’s no longer a starting first baseman, either, having lost his regular gig to Tommy Joseph. Even leaving salary aside, then, Howard’s value on the trade market would be very limited.
That had to be one of the most clueless extensions we’ve seen.
With 1.5 years left on his deal, they gave him max money way before they had to.
That’s the reason that Ruben is now a first base coach for the Red Sox.
August 2016 could save Howard’s carreer. He might be able to get a contract for next year if he can stay hot. I am pretty surprised because he is probably the player who has been the most affected by the defensive shifts, simply hasn’t been able to make the ajustment, his average has gone down by more than 50 points since the shifts started to get popular somewhere arround 2012
Teams have been shifting since the 1800s
Not to the extent that they do now. The short-right fielder didn’t really exist until Howard/Ortiz started mashing
How about the Giants pick him up and put him in left
I’m bad at picking up sarcasm. Is this sarcasm
literally what
…what
That would be horrible
Or Detroit could just plug him in at short. He has mad range if you put a Subway sub on both 2nd and 3rd.
At the time of the deal the Phils were trying to lock up Howard before Pujols reset the first baseman market. At that time the deal seemed rushed, but not awful. I always liked Howard, still do, and I think the Phils deserve some credit for their handling of Howard’s fading career.
Exactly. It’s easy with hindsight for everyone to criticize it for locking him up early, but if they waited for him and Pujols to reach free agency, they ran the risk of giving him even more years. And the Phillies would have been crucified by their fanbase if they allowed Howard to walk like STL did, especially without a replacement waiting to take over.
Getting 10 million dollars to be fired. Not bad.
Way to state the obvious you guys
Here’s the thing-
Howard is a Phillies legend, but so were Utley and Rollins and we traded both of them and regardless of how many other teams they go to between now and their retirements, they will go to the Phillies wall of fame, and if Utley and perhaps less likely, Rollins (he is close to 2,500 hits as a SS tho) are lucky, they will go to Cooperstown wearing a “P” on their plaque.
I don’t see why if we can clear a roster spot and get any type of prospect for Howard we shouldn’t do it. Send him to Houston for Angel Heredia (Big arm AA reliever who doesn’t even rank in top 30, but could be a major leaguer). Call up Knapp and see what he can do in the bigs while splitting time with Joseph in September.
I don’t see either of those 3 going to Cooperstown.
Philly HOF, no doubt.
I think the Phillies ruined Chase’s chances at the Hall of Fame by keeping him in the minors for to long. The extra couple of years might have made the difference,
If Chase can do what he’s done this season for say 1-2 more seasons, then I would say why not. At 38 years old Chase Utley is hitting leadoff for a playoff contending team- has 10 home runs and a 717 OPS and is on pace for a 1.7 WAR which would bring his career WAR to 64 which is just 5.3 below the average HOF 2B. His 7-Year Peak WAR is also 4.6 WAR points above the average HOF 2B and his JAWS is 0.5 points behind average. His black ink is rough, but I don’t understand the calculation process there, however as a 2B, he ranks 8th in OPS, 9th in HRs and 5th in slugging percentage among all second basemen of all time. While I believe Lou Whitaker was a major, major snub, I think Utley missing out would be just as bad.
Out of respect for the player, wouldn’t the Phillies entertain a deal to put him on a contender to finish out the year? Even for a nominal return, what difference does it make? They’re out of contention at this point and will certainly buy him out for $10MM. Not like he’s helping them fill any seats with ticket sales as evidenced by the less-than-half capacity the stadium has been at all year…
Isn’t he batting .189? Who would want that?
Pure B.S. If someone wanted Howard, they’d be stupid not to trade him.. Why let Howard sub at 1st base when you could A) let Joseph play all the time…B) Get some prospect for Howard and C) Howard gets to possibly see if he can do a DH role for next year
That’s the point no one wants him. He’s worthless.
The Big Piece is still a threat coming off the Bench for a Contender or as DH.
Baseball trivia:
Name at least 5 players who hit over 50 home runs in one season, but less than 400 for their career (hint: 3 are active).
Howard, Brady Anderson, Jose Bautista, Cecil and Prince Fielder?
All good guesses, and I’ll add in Chris Davis.
Y even post this story. That’s like a post about “Yankees unlikely to trade ARod”. Because no1 wants to give anything up for him.