Pitcher Spencer Howard could join Phillies on Friday after tune-up in Allentown

Spencer Howard’s four innings of work Sunday afternoon in Allentown may prove to be his final tune-up for the major leagues as the Phillies’ top pitching prospect could join the team as early as Friday.

Howard pitched in an intrasquad scrimmage Sunday between members of the Phillies’ taxi squad at Coca-Cola Park, the home of triple-A Lehigh Valley. He threw 62 pitches in four innings and allowed four hits, two runs, and stuck out four.

Phillies manager Joe Girardi said after Sunday’s loss to Miami that Vince Velasquez will start Friday against Toronto, but that doesn’t mean the team could not use Howard as reliever. Bryce Harper said earlier this month that “there’s a problem” if the Phillies didn’t promote Howard after they were done manipulating his service time. The Phillies can delay his free agency by keeping him off the major-league roster at the start of the season.

Would Harper be frustrated if Howard does not arrive this week?

“No, not frustrated,” Harper said. “I believe in the guys who are on our staff right now. I believe that we set up our rotation to go out there and compete every single day and hopefully they can keep doing that. We have two turns going with Arrieta and Eflin coming up in a big series against the Yankees. So we’ll see what happens. It’s still a couple days away.”

Sunday was not an audition for Howard as he already proved to the Phillies that he’s ready for the majors. It was instead just a way to delay Howard’s free agency by a year. If the Phillies call up Howard after the season’s sixth game, he’ll become a free agent after 2026 instead of 2025.

“It’s part of it,” Howard said last week. “There’s not much than I can do about it other than take care of my work every day and try to get a little bit better and keep progressing, and what they choose to do is up to them. But I think as far as just keeping everything that I can control, keep that rolling. That’s my mindset toward it.”

Velasquez allowed four runs in three innings on Sunday as he blew a 4-0 lead just as Howard was pitching in Allentown. Velasquez, who won the competition to be the final starter in the rotation, said he does not feel pressure from Howard.

“I don’t think pressure is implied at all,” Velasquez said. “I think it’s a thing that we can kind of utilize to kind of learn from each other to make each other better as a pitching staff. I think that’s what pitching coach Bryan Price has developed with all of us, a solid communication on how we get better as individuals, how do we get better as a team, how do we communicate a little bit more. I think that’s why we kind of opened up a lot more with him than previous years. I know people have their likings to other pitching coaches we’ve had previous years, but I think thoroughly more so Bryan has developed a solid communication amongst ourselves. That kind of built a lot of comfortability among all of us.”

Jake Arrieta will start Monday night against Yankees lefthander J.A. Happ and Zach Eflin will face right-hander Gerrit Cole on Tuesday at Citizens Bank Park. The Phillies then travel to Yankee Stadium for two games. ... Harper has reached base safely in 16 of his last 17 games, dating back to last season. During that stretch, he’s batting .317 with five homers and a 1.061 OPS.