Nick Piccone
After being a big advocate of releasing Ryan Howard during the first couple months of the 2016 baseball season, I’ve relegated myself to appreciating Howard’s final games as a Phillie and enjoying the at-bats he can knock one more out of the park. And, sure, they’re few and far between and his starting job was taken by Tommy Joseph – appropriately, as well – but Howard’s basically on a farewell tour. And that’s OK. But, nobody seems to have told Ryan that.
Speaking to MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki, Howard talked about playing beyond this season, along with Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz, who the Phillies could move on from next season for a mere $500,000. Ruiz’s contract currently includes a $4.5 million club option for next season, and I’m not sure the Phillies will bring him back for one more year.
But Howard isn’t calling it a career just yet. It doesn’t seem like he’s thinking about that at all, actually.
“We both want to be able to go somewhere and play beyond this year. We’ve got to try to make the most of what we can while we’re still here. … I just keep doing my work. I’ve been doing this thing for 12 years, playing for 12 years. You figure out how to play the game. That’s the game of baseball. Things come in waves. You have good waves and you have bad waves.”
For whatever reason everybody else thinks I’m done playing. I know I can still play. I know I’m still capable of it. This year, one bad month and you’re done. For me it’s about not having the opportunity to rectify the one bad month.”
“Everybody looks at May and says I can’t play anymore. I know I can play and I still want to play in the future. That’s where my mindset is. Now it’s just taking advantage of the opportunities I get and put it in play for next year.”
One bad month, Ryan? Boy, oh boy. I’m not exactly looking to prove him wrong in this post, or even go through this post with bad feelings attached. In fact, there could be a good chance a team would take a chance on him next season.
Since the All-Star break, Howard has hit .371, hitting four home runs. Not bad at all. So he might be able to play past this year. But I’d shudder to think what type of contract he’d have to sign to continue playing. Jimmy Rollins is already on the outside of the league looking in.