Report: Howard can block trades to 20 teams
According to ESPN.com, Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard can block a trade to all but nine teams.
As if finding a suitor for Ryan Howard and at least part of the $60 million remaining on his contract doesn't pose enough of a challenge for the rebuilding Phillies, general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. is apparently limited in the teams with which he could strike a deal.
Howard can block trades to 20 teams, according to ESPN.com, under the five-year, $125-million contract he signed in April 2010. Each of the nine teams he could be traded to without his permission, according to the report, which cites an anonymous source, plays in the American League - the Angels, Mariners, Orioles, Rangers, Rays, Red Sox, Royals, Tigers and Yankees.
In a recent radio interview on 97.5 The Fanatic, Amaro noted that he told Howard the Phils would be better off without the 35-year-old first baseman, but the GM also added in the same interview that the club had no desire to release the embattled former NL MVP.
Inquirer columnist Bob Brookover wrote over the weekend that until the Phillies move on from Howard, "the rebuilding process will be stalled."