Philadelphia Phillies Will Probably End Up Cutting Ryan Howard
By Hayden Kane
Ryan Howard‘s mega contract continues to be a problem for the Philadelphia Phillies as they try to rebuild a legit MLB contender. The team will likely reach the point where they have to cut him.
We are approaching the point where the Philadelphia Phillies will pay Ryan Howard a significant sum of money to not play baseball for them.
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Yes, the Ryan Howard era in Philadelphia is finally stumbling to its clumsy conclusion. The Phillies are reluctantly coming to the conclusion that no team is going to want to trade for Howard. With general manager Ruben Amaro having finally admitted that the team would be better without Howard and with him telling Howard as much, the team is approaching the point where they will have to get rid of Howard one way or another.
Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe writes the following about Howard’s status with the Phillies:
"At some point, the Phillies must come to the conclusion they have to release Howard and eat more than $60 million. GM Ruben Amaro is on record as saying the team is better off without Howard, even though he knocked in 95 runs last season. When will that point come?"
That last question is an interesting one. It seems reasonable to assume that the point will come before the 2015 season starts so that the Phillies can be done with this situation and move on with a clean slate. The only motivation to keep Howard would be to see if he could re-establish his value for a mid-season trade, but the Phillies have to know better at this point.
Howard batted .223/.310/.380 last season. The 35-year-old first baseman has two years left on his current deal for $25 million a season, with a club option sure-to-be-declined for 2017.
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