This past weekend, Ruben Amaro admitted that he talked to long-time Phillies first baseman, Ryan Howard, and that the team would be better without him moving forward. With $73 million remaining on Howard's deal, not only would the Phillies have to find someone willing to take on an aging slugger, but also eat a lot of the money he is owed.
"He's another case where he can say no to certain places," Rollins said of Howard, who has a limited no-trade clause. "They've made it very clear that they'd rather be without him. But just in the economics of baseball, they'll have to eat a lot of that contract and also have to find a team that will suit Ryan and wants to take on Ryan."
That all being said, the way the Phillies went about the Howard situation was very surprising to now former shortstop, Jimmy Rollins, who had a sit down interview with CSNPhilly.com's Jim Salisbury.
Jimmy Rollins noticed the comments. Was he surprised by them?
"Very. Just for the fact that that's not how things were ever done around there," the recently traded shortstop told CSNPhilly.com's Jim Salisbury in a wide-ranging interview.
"I think the last time I [saw] anything in that way was when Scott Rolen was going through his issue and [the Phillies] were making it pretty clear publicly that they weren't satisfied with him, they were willing to go on without him. I was a young pup then, not knowing what the heck was going on, but that was the last time I would have seen them be this vocal about wanting to move a guy and go forward."
While Howard may still have the ability to produce 25 homers and 90 runs batted in, being put in the four hole every day would give a lot of guys those kind of numbers. A lot of his RBI's came when the team was already out of it and we all know that it seemed like he struck out more in big situations this past season than we've seen in the past. At this point, it is obvious that Howard coming to Phillies camp may provide for an awkward situation, so a change of scenery is probably the best idea and Rollins agrees.
"At this point, probably, just because its been made so public that the organization wants to go a different direction," Rollins said.
"And when the organization wants to go a different direction, usually the fans follow. So if [Howard's] not great, then he's horrible. And he's gonna be in a lose-lose situation."
One has to wonder how different the situation would be right now if Howard had not ruptured his Achillies at the end of the 2011 playoffs. Since then, he's never been the same.
If the Phillies want to make a move involving Howard, it would have to come before May, when Ryan's 10-and-5 right kick in.
Brandon Apter is a contributor to Philliedelphia.com
