MLB: 5 overvalued/undervalued players entering 2015
By Will Osgood
1B Ryan Howard Philadelphia Phillies
Contract: 5 years, $125 million ($25 million/year)
Take the last paragraph from the Prince Fielder slide, and insert it here. Except, in truth, things are even worse for Howard and the Phillies. How, you ask?
The Phillies are stuck with Howard and paying him $50 million over two more seasons, which will almost certainly be dreadful (they also possess a team option for the 2017 season, which they assuredly decline unless Howard sees a miracle worker between now and then and regains prior status as an elite power hitter).
And there is no team dumb enough to take him off their hands. One of the problems with Howard, and the way the Phillies handled him, was the fact they already had Jim Thome at first base when they deemed him ready for the big leagues.
But Howard was not capable of switching positions. So he had to wait until Thome was shipped out of town to really get his chance to play every day. That did not come until 2005, and really 2006 was Howard’s first full big league season.
The other problem is that Howard was worth the wait. That’s not really a problem except in the sense that it created an urgency to sign him to a big extension or risk losing him. It’s the Kris Bryant situation done wrong. The Cubs’ front office is much wiser than the people running the Phillies so it’s nearly impossible they make the same mistake Philadelphia did.
But Howard seemed worth it at the time. And they weren’t crazy; historically power hitters who hit for decent averages, age well. Theoretically, if he’d not sustained severe injuries, Howard would have been expected to net roughly 30 home runs a season and produce at least 100 runs, not to mention scoring close to that many himself.
But now he’s a shell of his former self. The Fightin’ Phils can only hope he can scrap together some pieces from the old tool shed and become 75 percent of the player he used to be. Otherwise they’ll have one of the most overvalued players in the game for the next two seasons.
Next: And now undervalued players