Howard: Phillies Don’t Need Harper, Machado, Can ‘Drop Stupid Money’ on Trout

By Matt Rappa, Sports Talk Philly editor

For 13 seasons, first baseman Ryan Howard donned red pinstripes and logged the second-most home runs (382) and third-most RBI (1,194) in Philadelphia Phillies history. Arguably since his retirement following the 2016 season, the Phillies have not had perennial MVP-caliber player outside of Rhys Hoskins.

Fast-forwarding to the 2018-19 MLB offseason, the club is looking to complement Hoskins with at least one — if not two — such players: Bryce Harper and Manny Machado.

Tuesday on MLB Network, Howard, a the three-time All-Star, 2005 National League Rookie of the Year, 2006 National League Most Valuable Player and 2008 World Series champion, shared his thoughts on the Phillies' pursuit of the respective All-Stars.

"I don't think they need to go out and go get Harper or Machado. I think it all depends on how you're going to be able to build around those guys," Howard said.

"If you get a Harper, if you get a Machado, you still have to have pieces around those guys. When you look at where they're coming from — LA where Machado finished up — you had Bellinger [and] Turner … you had guys around him. In Baltimore, you had Davis, you had Adam Jones. You had all these guys that were around him. Harper had Jayson Werth for awhile, he had Murphy, he had Zimmerman, all those guys."

Per Howard, the Phillies would have to be able to put Harper or Machado "in a situation to where they're going to succeed," because otherwise they would be putting them in a situation "where they're going to be the guy and making a lot of money, but not necessarily to be able to go out there and do what they're really capable of doing."

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"They don't have a supporting cast around them," Howard said. "Thus, if you're going to be Philly and get Machado or Harper, what you need to do is … you need to continue trying to build around that and get a couple more pieces."

In rebuttal to Howard's statement, the Phillies have in fact added noteworthy pieces this offseason, and in a sense made an addition through subtraction as well — trading J.P. Crawford and Carlos Santana to the Seattle Mariners. The Phillies doing so not only landed them Jean Segura, it allowed Hoskins to move back to his more natural position at first base. Also, signing corner outfielder Andrew McCutchen and longtime New York Yankees clutch reliever David Robertson are anything but insignificant improvements.

Howard said if the Phillies do miss out on Harper or Machado, however, "that's not the worst thing because there's a guy named Mike Trout," who has "season Eagles tickets and is there every week."

"The fans love him; they know he's from right outside of Philly. We had 'Mike Trout Day' at the game [once], so they love him there," Howard said. "I think for every baseball player, if you can have the opportunity to go home and play in front of your hometown team, who doesn't want to take that?"

"So I think if you miss out on Machado or Harper, it's not the worst thing," Howard said. "Build your team up to where you can go make a run at Trout if you got that 'stupid money,' and you're looking at going and dropping it."

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While Phillies fans would love for Trout to join the Phillies, the earliest he could play for the team would be 2021, when following his $34-plus million contract obligations with the Los Angeles Angels in both 2019 and 2010. Even then, it is not guaranteed that Trout would not have a long-term deal with the Angels by then.

The Phillies' best move is to sign either Harper, Machado, or both this offseason; they will have a prime opportunity to do so this weekend when they visit Harper in his hometown of Las Vegas, Nevada.