By Pete Mackanin’s words, Ryan Howard’s season is over.
“I don’t think I’ll play [Howard] the rest of the year, obviously today or [Sunday], I don’t see the point in that,” Mackanin said Saturday before the Phillies’ doubleheader with the Miami Marlins at Citizens Bank Park.
Howard, who turns 36 in November, has been out since Sept. 14 when he took a throw off his left knee. It’s been a back-and-forth drama the past week on whether Howard would play again this season. His return looked promising Tuesday when he was available to pinch-hit, but Wednesday he showed up to the ballpark with a cold and his status has dwindled since.
Could he pinch-hit the final three games?
“Probably not, I don’t see any point in it,” Mackanin said. “He hasn’t seen live pitching, so nothing he can do really to change anything.”
If that’s the final edict on Howard, he slashed .229/.277/.443 this season with 23 homers and 77 RBIs. In August, he began platooning at first base, starting against only right-handed pitching in large part because of a .130 batting average and three homers against left-handers.
Howard is under contract through 2016, due $25 million next season. His deal has a $23 million team option for 2017 and $10 million buyout option.
MLB
So what’s next for the team’s longtime first baseman?
“I anticipate he’ll be in Clearwater,” 2016 team president Andy MacPhail said recently, per CSNPhilly.com’s Jim Salisbury. “We’ll see where we go there. I don’t know what’s going to happen over the course of the winter, what opportunities may be available for us and for him. We just have to cross that bridge when we get there, but right now he’s somebody we have a vested interest in getting back healthy and getting him to Clearwater and getting that bat in our lineup that we don’t have without him.”