Next test in Howard's rehab coming soon
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Next test in Howard's rehab coming soon
Bob Brookover, Inquirer Baseball Columnist
While the quest to re-sign Jimmy Rollins at the right price will intensify when the Phillies head to the winter meetings Sunday in Dallas, the team should also get a clearer indication about first baseman Ryan Howard's rehab from surgery on his ruptured left Achilles' tendon in the near future.
Howard, injured in the final at-bat of the Phillies' season during their playoff loss to St. Louis, has been walking around in a boot designed to keep weight off his left leg.
"He seems to be progressing OK," Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said. "When he starts doing more weight-bearing stuff, we should get a better indication of what the time frame will be (for his return). Hopefully by the middle of this month he'll start doing those weight-bearing things."
It has been estimated that Howard will be sidelined until at least May.
It's unclear how the Phillies plan to replace Howard if he is not ready to begin the season, but recently acquired Ty Wigginton is probably the primary option right now. Wigginton has started 114 games at first base over the last two seasons with Baltimore and Colorado.
Amaro said all indications continue to point toward third baseman Placido Polanco being ready for opening day after undergoing double hernia surgery shortly after the season ended.
"He may be a little behind at the start of spring training, but he should be there on opening day," Amaro said.
Use Utley at 1st Polanco at 2nd Mayberry in left and find a 3rdbasemen who can hit for Ave. and power once howard comes back Polanco become the teams super utility player giving Utely, our 3rd baeman and Short stop days off that will give us a good hitting bench guy who will get enough time to stay sharp in the field and at bat. Maybe then we could get another relief pitcher and an outfielder who can hit. just saying— srcdaddy1216- This makes great sense, but do you really think the Phillies are going to use over 6 million in salary for Polanco to be used in a utuilty role? (especially with Valdez in the fold?)... — bearsfriend
- Not bad options, but Carlos Quinten is being made available from the ChiSox. Get him for left field and keep Mayberry Jr. at 1st base until the big piece comes back. Mayberry Jr. can play ALL OF positions and 1st base. He can be the guy to give LF/CF/RF/1B time off while honing his AB's at the plate.— drhoffman
- Best thing you can do for Mayberry's development is stick him in left field and let him play there as much as he can, all season long.
I have no idea whether Polanco can stay healthy but a healthy Polanco starting the season was a terror to other teams last year and could be again. It's a mistake to think that he can't handle the main responsibilities at third with Wigginton filling in as needed.
I think Thome and Wigginton should be the improvised combination at first base until Howard is ready. Maybe even Ben Francisco in a blue moon.— Claudio Vernight - all good posts from the folks in front of me here, but I have to say that @srcdaddy126 laid out a pretty good plan here. Would love to see more power coming out of 3rd base, and Polly as a guy who can get 300+ AB's spotting other IF positions. Keeping Polly fresh can make all the difference in the world this season— advantasux
- Can Amaro get Wade the GM job with the Mets? That way, he can get Wright for third base for a couple of middling AA players and have NY pay most of his salary.— mike l
- I'm not sure who they will get to replace his strike outs.— Justaschmuck
- Don't worry about replacing Howard's strikeouts. Most of the Phillies' hitters can do a pretty good job of it themselves.— SteveS11
- Has a major league team ever been eliminated from the playoffs three years in a row with the same player having the final at bat?— jamesiri
- Usually a bunch of morons posting here but I gotta agree that these are good and srcdaddy126 makes a lot of sense on his. Would love to see Polanco move to the bench as a supersub, might enable him to be on the field in one piece come September and beyond.— PhillySubsMac
- go get Reyes from the mets and have wiggins at 1st base and mayberry -in left, I think J-Roll is done, he does'nt drive himself to win anymore. all that money can get you alot more for the buck.
Rob— Mack1945 - Please join me is begging Mack to get a saliva test. reyes (lower case for this jerk) is poisen and would be the Phiz version of Deshawn.— NewMick314
- NewMick is dead on. If Reyes comes to Philly I'm going to New York. (oops what did I just say...slap me Mick— stoky
- Make it a TKO, stoke— NewMick314
- Agree with srcdaddy, except we don't know what will happen on the farm with Dom Brown. I'm certain RAJ has not forgotten him.— Andrewsgvl
