Long-time MLB slugger Ryan Howard announced in a post today at The Player’s Tribune that he is retiring from the game of baseball. Howard had not played during the 2018 season, but also had not formally hung up his spikes.
Howard will finish out his big-league playing tenure having logged time in 13 seasons, all of them with the Phillies. Though he spent time with the Rockies and Braves organizations last year, Howard’s final MLB showing came in 2016 with Philadelphia.
It’s perhaps too easy to forget now that Howard was once one of the game’s most productive power hitters. He was voted the National League’s Rookie of the Year in 2005 and its Most Valuable Player in 2006, emerging alongside players such as Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins, Shane Victorino, and Cole Hamels to form a core that would soon take the game by storm.
As it turned out, the fate of the Phillies was tied closely to that of its first baseman. Howard finished in the top-ten of MVP voting in every one of the five ensuing seasons, 2007 through 2011, helping to drive the club’s five-year run of NL East titles.
Though the 2008 World Series win represents the crowning achievement of that era of Phillies baseball, the 2011 club actually turned in the most impressive regular-season performance with an excellent 102-60 record. That great team was bounced in stunning fashion from the postseason, though, with Howard making the final out of the NLDS on a play in which he tore his left Achilles tendon.
As went Howard, so went the Phillies; neither was the same from that point forward. The once-feared slugger posted a .226/.292/.427 batting line over the next five seasons. The club played a cumulative 88 games under .500 in the same span.
Of course, the relationship might have ended much sooner had it not been for the fact that Howard signed a five-year, $125MM extension at the start of the 2010 season — an agreement we examined at length after its conclusion. As I explained in that post, the cracks in Howard’s game may not have been obvious at the time of the deal, but began to show not long after.
Mostly, of course, the contract represented a combination of partially but not completely related failures: then-GM Ruben Amaro Jr. and the Phillies’ brass did not accurately project Howard’s future and the big man’s body did not hold up. There was some tension later in his tenure with the team, though ultimately he played out his contract and bowed out after some nice moments to wrap things up in Philadelphia.
While the club did not achieve value on that contract, it certainly made out quite well overall on a player who came to the organization as a fifth-round pick in the 2001 draft. And Howard expressed fond memories in his farewell statement, which is well worth a full read. MLBTR wishes him all the best in his future endeavors.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Still remember how well he hit in the second half of 2016. Unfortunately it didn’t carry over.
From Dunder Mifflin?
Eat fresh.
That’s what she said…
The temp?
I need you to get me the rights to Darth Vader
Always a fan of Ryan Howard. Sadly, like Kobe Bryant, think Howard ‘retired’ the day he tore his Achilles 🙁
Unfortunately his Achilles heel was his achilles heal…
As an O’s fan I can only hope Chris Davis’s career is t headed to a similar place. That said, congrats to Ryan Howard on a Major League career!!
Sadly, it is already there.
Oh yeah Chris Davis is long past that point already
I just found out today that Chris Davis is the worst player in baseball this season, and it’s not even particularly close. -2.4 WAR. That’s insane. I knew he was bad but I had no idea how bad.
It’s not really fair IMO to criticize the team for that deal. Look at the money some of the other sluggers were getting at the time. Had he not ruptured his achilles, who knows? That’s a tough injury to come back from.
Strongly disagree. Even if you were optimistic about Howard’s health (despite the fate of similarly sized men) and his performance (already in decline) in 2010, $125M for 5 years was like a market rate free agent deal. Except it wasn’t a free agent deal, but an extension signed two full years ahead of time. Completely unnecessary, It might not have been so awful without the achilles injury, but it was very likely to turn out badly regardless, and people said so at the time.
It was a terrible deal even at the time. And yes other sluggers were getting that money but those contracts were also turning out terribly. Why would you want to copy that? Also, other sluggers were getting that money in real time in free agency. Howard got it 15 months in advance despite being already under contract. That is a major difference: that means an extra 15 months of age, and an extra 15 months where something could go wrong. It’s one thing to make a large guarantee, but when a team locks in a deal that early, they should be getting a significant discount to compensate for the risk.
The Howard deal was bad because the Phillies seemed to be completely ignoring the risk of signing the deal way before they needed to.
Ryan Howard will retire as one of a handful of players to hit more than 50 homeruns in a single season but less than 400 hrs in his career. Can you name at least 8? (Hint: they are a few active players).
Ralph Kiner, Cecil Fielder, George Foster, Hack Wilson, Luis Gonzalez, Greg Vaughn, Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Johnny Mize, Roger Maris. That’s all I can think of off the top of my head. Would need to look up if there are more.
Brady Anderson is definitely another.
You can also add Prince Fielder
Gus Zernial makes the list too doesn’t he?
Prince and Cecil ended up with the same total HRs, 319.
Zernial topped out at 42.
Spooky
Gregg Jefferies
Lol, did he even hit 20 in a season?
Good job! A few more players are Jose Bautista, Chris Davis, and the infamous Brady Anderson.
Giancarlo Stanton will probably leave the list in 2-3 years but who knows?
I’m pretty sure Jose Bautista is one
On the other hand, there are only 2 players with more than 600 career home runs who never hit 50 or more in a single season. Can you name them?
Hank Aaron and Albert Pujols.
NO STEROIDS
Ryan Howard if you see this post, thank you, if not for a tore Achilles you could have been the greatest power hitter in baseball history. Philadelphia will remember you as one of the greats.
Ryan Howard struck out too much to make him a great hitter. Home runs and strike outs go hand in hand shifting the meaning of greatness in hitting so many.
You should look up this guy named Babe Ruth. Obscure player from the 20s and 30s. Led the league in strikeouts 7 times. What a lousy hitter.
davidcoonce74….Pretty lousy comparison considering the Babe only topped 90 K’s one time in his prime (1928 and he slashed .393/.545/.764) and once more in 1933 when he slashed .301/.442/.582 2 years before retirement.
The Babe played 22 years and had 1330 K’s. Howard played 13 years and had 1843 K’s. No comparison at all
Baseball is way harder now; pitchers throw harder and have way better stuff. Babe Ruth would probably be a good player now, but he wouldn’t be anything like he was in the 20s and 30s. The game is leaps and bounds better than it was now.
babe Ruth struck out a ton for his era, an era in which pitchers pitched to contact.
And the bigger issue is that baseball is just completely different now. Babe Ruth only played against white people from the East Coast, basically; the cohort of talent he was competing against was tiny compared to now.
Babe Ruth was a heavy drinker, a heavy smoker, and entertained many many ladies nightly in his hotel rooms. Do you think a player in 2018 could achieve what he did with those kinds of proclivities?
And look at any other athletic endeavour: the Olympic-winning track times from the 20s and 30s would, literally, not win a high-school track meet today. Babe Ruth was a great player for his era; the best. But he still struck out more than everybody, which was the point.
You comparison is still bogus. Yes Ruth lead the league in K’s but you were trying to equate high K rates between the 2 which is ridiculous. Ruth’s K % lifetime 12.5%…Howard’s K% 28.2%.
I am also well aware of the difference in the game as well as it’s history, you, despite your belief are not the only one. I am also aware of the many misconceptions such as all ballparks were smaller then and no pitcher threw over 90 mph.
You attempted to compare Ruth’s overall K % to Howard’s and when called on it went on a sideways tangent to try and prove your bogus point. It failed.
Have a nice day.
He led the league in strikeouts in that era. Obviously the percentages are going to be different due to the eras. I’m sure back in the day people were saying Ruth K’d too much.
Yes; you can find plenty of newspaper articles from that era complaining about how much Ruth struck out.
Ruth led the league in strikeouts five times. Howard led the league in strikeouts twice. Who cares about K%? It’s been going up yearly for decades. The point is that Ruth was constantly criticized for his strikeouts; it didn’t make him a bad player for his era. Same with Howard.
Have a nice day.
The common thread with most hitters of that era who were in the top ten in K’s was a high BA, and a high OBP, whether it was the Babe, or High Pockets Kelly or Gehrig or Bruce Campbell or Hack Wilson.
When you have a lifetime slash of .342/.474/.690 like Ruth or the .300/.359/.522 of Wally Berger people didn’t worry about a 12% or lower K rate.
It’s still not a good comparison. It’s like comparing Stanton to Gallo.
“Babe Ruth was a heavy drinker, a heavy smoker, and entertained many many ladies nightly in his hotel rooms. Do you think a player in 2018 could achieve what he did with those kinds of proclivities?”
Ummm… I think smoking is down but you’re kidding yourself if you think players aren’t drinking and carousing these days. Many of them have girlfriends in 29 cities.
BUT THE BALL PARKS WERE LARGER,LESS HR TODAY.
That was even painful for me to watch live as a NYY fan. I also thought he also made pretty good Subway sandwiches ads. I always root for over-paid *old* players for one more OK season but that didn’t happen. Next up: Albert Pujols.
I love Ryan Howard. The guy was amazing. But no, he was not going to be the greatest power hitter in baseball history.
He was already 30 when he got injured. You would have to believe that he was not going to age at all for the next 7-8 years AND then have a modest decline into his early 40’s. Possible? Sure. No way though I would take that bet.
The sad part is to think what could have been had Howard not been blocked. He got such a late start that calling him an all-time great in anything is hard.
Yep. Also wonder what could have been with Howard being offered in a deal to Toronto for Ted Lilly around 2004-05. I think playing in the AL East in his prime would have been fun to watch.
“It’s almost like I blinked — and suddenly, September 2004 … it became September 2018.”
So true, time flies too fast sometimes.
This contract was simply an unforced error on the part of Amaro.
Howard was already under contract for two more seasons. In situations like this you either (A) wait things out until the contract end date gets closer (at least one more year) or (B) you extend the player early – providing him with additional security in terms of contract length BUT the team receives a discount in the contract price.
There was no discount. Howard’s deal immediately became one of the richest in baseball. Had the team waited just a single year, a deal like this would not have been struck.
I think that Amaro was told to give him the big contract two years early as a reward for his play as that was the height of the Phillies best records.They were living the good life and filling the Vet.As with many who get that much of a financial windfall,his desire and play started dropping quickly and the injury did not help.It also coincided with the whole team dropping off.It is very difficult to sustain excellence for a long time.
He was a fine player and a real force but he did have holes in his game that are covered up by hitting 50 home runs in a year.
The Vet? Not so much.
Howard unfortunately became the “face” of the Phillies’ fall from grace. He wasn’t; there were many other blunders. And no, not all were caused by Amaro; it’s the perfect example of when the “suits” get overly involved in baseball ops.
Howard was a pretty good player, and had a couple of years when he dominated his league. Hard Stop……he was a pretty good player.
Wrong
With or without Howard
Someone else will get supermax contract
Howard had some really good years, was a great face for the Phillies, and seemed like a very friendly guy.
With that said, the whole “who could have foreseen his fall!” is again, ridiculous. Howard had horrible platoon splits. He was incapable of hitting LHP outside of a BABIP-fueled year against them in 2006. His 2008 I had friends that are Phillies fans and were openly talking about the post-Howard years in 2008-09, as they figured there was no way the team would re-sign a guy with such a gaping flaw. He was declining before he got hurt. The tear just accelerated the fall a bit.
I’m not saying his fall was unforeseeable, if that’s what you’re suggesting. Perhaps this is directed at other commenters … regardless … IMO the contract was ill-conceived and I indicated as much (both here and in the linked post). But it’s also fair to assume he’d have fallen off more gradually were it not for the catastrophic injury. Likewise, the Phillies’ collapse was somewhat more sudden than probably ought to have been anticipated … they won 102 games and then suddenly were more or less done for.
The holes in Howard’s game weren’t quite as apparent at the end of 2009. His walk rate hadn’t cratered yet and he was coming off a season of an OPS+ of 141. Yes, it was too much too soon, but maybe it’s too harsh to assume that the FO should have anticipated such a steep decline.
As a Braves fan I feared every time he walked to the plate until the day he raptured his achilles
I don’t know. The collapse didn’t seem sudden.
Phillies went from 2008-14:
1st Place, Won World Series
1st Place, Lost World Series
1st Place, Lost NLCS
1st Place, Lost NLDS
3rd Place
4th Place
5th Place
That is a long, slow bleed out.
Loved watching Howard play but my favorite moment for him was his appearance on the show the office.
Was also cool seeing him and Chase Utley on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. I had hoped he could’ve revived his career as an Ortiz type of DH.
He was retired by the league but it was about time 5 years ago
As a Braves fan, seeing his name still brings chills. What a great player. I wish him well in his retirement. Hopefully he is set financially and he could be of service in the baseball community.
Probably had productive years wasted early in his career remaining in AAA longer than he should have. Philly had Jim Thome at the time. Howard should have probably been in the majors in 2003 and starting by 2004. Phils were still contending at the time.
Nonetheless Howard was a force 2005-2011. For those talking about his “decline”, I’ve been reading a bunch of articles on this site having excellent numbers with a .260 avg and .340 OBP. That was pretty much Ryan Howard during that timeframe. He would have probably continued that trend had it not been for that horrific injury that came out of nowhere in the 2011 NLDS.
Yeah, the big contract hampered Philadelphia at the time. Very easy to be critical of it after the fact. Who knows where the franchise would be and who they would have paid big money to if not Howard.
Everyone seemed to know where that contract was going from the day it was signed… unfortunately for many that’s his legacy.
He was a great player in his prime!
I’ll be honest, I didn’t realize he wasn’t already retired…. was he still playing minor league ball?
No, it just took a while for Howard to get the memo (that no one wanted to sign him, any more.)
It’s always interesting when players I thought were retired…retire. Someone else that I forgot about retired recently as well.
BIG PIECE
I’ll never accept that the BBWAA awarded Ryan Howard, not Albert Pujols, the 2006 NL MVP. The Machine’s batting stats, fielding stats including Gold Glove Award, and advanced sabremetrics across that entire season don’t lie.
I thought they were pretty even, and it’s always nice to see an underdog win. Howard was the most feared hitter in 2006, despite Pujols being better all around. Similar to the Goldschmidt vs Stanton situation last year.