The Phillies finally have a plan when it comes to Spencer Howard’s future

The Philadelphia Phillies #1 pitching prospect the past few seasons, Spencer Howard‘s first taste of major league action has been unconventional to say the least.

After hanging around the team’s “alternate site” for the first half of the 2020 season, the hard-throwing righty was called up to make his MLB debut as the team looked for a boost to help them sneak their way into the expanded postseason. Howard ended up starting six games for the Phillies, largely kept on a pitch count due to how little throwing action he had leading up to the 2020 season.

Following the Phillies depressing inability to make the playoffs (despite being afforded multiple chances during the closing days of the season), the front office experienced a full-on makeover. Matt Klentak and Andy MacPhail were relieved of their decision-making duties, with Dave Dombrowski and Sam Fuld anointed the new president of baseball operations and general manager.

Right off the bat, this duo seemed unsure of Howard’s ability to work as a full-time starter in 2021. Two of Dombrowski’s first moves were adding veteran starters Chase Anderson and Matt Moore, despite many expecting him to dedicate a majority of resources towards improving the bullpen. Anderson and Moore joined a starting pitching room that already included Aaron Nola, Zack Wheeler, Zach Eflin, and Vince Velasquez – early signs definitely pointed towards Howard spending one final year in Lehigh Valley, working on his ability to go deeper into ballgames after that awkward 2020 experience.

However, Anderson and Moore were out of the starting rotation before the month of May could even finish, which meant Howard had to be shuttled back up to the major league roster, once again to be used as a spot starter. The Phillies played with the idea of using Howard out of the bullpen for a bit, as an innings eater, but ultimately tasked him with making the occasional 3.0 inning start, similar to how he was used in 2020.

After just five starts of Howard pitching like a glorified opener, the Phillies once again optioned him down to AAA, however this time it appears to be a decision that will persist for the remainder of the 2021 campaign. According to The Athletic’s Matt Breen, Howard will spend the rest of the year stretching out to the 100-pitch range:

This is a decision that probably should have been made a few weeks ago. Barring some sort of unforeseen run, the Phillies are practically already out of the postseason picture, and the brief appearances as a “starter” weren’t helping Howard’s development in the slightest. As annoying as it may be from a fan perspective, Howard simply needs more time to ramp up before he can be properly evaluated as a major league starter.

The Phillies have finally established a formal plan when it comes to Spencer Howard’s future, which is a good thing.

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While the discourse surrounding Howard’s Phillies career is already a negative one, the good news is that Howard has in fact improved a little bit compared to 2020. His FIP dropped from 5.86 to 4.35, and his strikeout rate jumped up to 11.9. His frequent velocity drops and control issues remained a problem, but that’s largely the point of sending him back down, to fix those issues in a more low-stress environment.

Whether you still believe in Howard or not, the simple truth of the matter is the Phillies need Howard to develop into a rotation piece down the road. Many have called for him to be permanently moved to the bullpen. Not only would such a decision be wildly premature after just 12 career starts in the big leagues, but it would also ruin the Phillies chances of having a playoff-caliber rotation moving forward (without handing out another huge contract in free agency).

While it may be happening later than we all initially expected, a potential Wheeler/Nola/Eflin/Howard rotation still has a chance to be one of the best in the National League – assuming Howard can get to where he needs to be following one final year of development.