Howard is ambivalent about where he’ll be next year

$155M and some years later, Ryan Howard is still a Phillies player

Ryan Howard is a good interviewee, the other night on Comcast SportsNet from Philadelphia, he was interviewed about his own tenure as a Phillies player and also about Chase Utley who had just been traded to the LA Dodgers.

When asked about what he thought may happen in his own career as far as staying with or being traded from the Phillies, Howard was very non-committal to both. He simply said, he’s looking forward to the off-season and staying in shape during that time and whatever happens will happen. He didn’t profess any great love for the Phillies, and simply said, if I’m on the Phillies that would be fine or if he’s somewhere else, that also would be fine.

I guess so, speaking on the terms of his mega-contract that extends into 2017. Howard is guaranteed at least another nearly $50M dollars from the Phillies any way you look at it.

Roundly criticized as one of the worst ever contracts in baseball, Howard was bestowed the huge $125M dollar contract from Ruben Amaro on the road in San Francisco. It was April 2010, and after the deal was announced on the road, Howard said, “Hopefully there’s no riots back in Philadelphia.”

There were no riots, but there was plenty of second guessing and since then an iron clad knowledge that it was the wrong time to offer Howard such a huge deal based upon 4 really nice seasons that he put together.

Ruben Amaro bet on the future, and he lost.

Yes, Ryan Howard has been through injury and back, but he was never the same player after he inked his name to that contract. The deal had been done and there was no looking back. Howard’s made nearly $155M playing the game of baseball in Philadelphia he’s not ambivalent to his bank balance.

The numbers tell a story, Ruben’s bet on Howard’s career was based on 4 seasons (2006-2009) that were looking like they would take Howard straight to Cooperstown (may he still be Hall worthy?):