Ryan Howard: Quick Surgery Good Sign for Phillies’ Star 1B

Craig Calcaterra of NBC Sports reports here that Phillies‘ first baseman Ryan Howard underwent surgery to repair his left Achilles tendon today.

Assuming the surgery went off with no problems, this is a very good thing for the Phillies. The exact recovery time is not really known. Expectations last week were that he would be out until mid-May to early-June.

There were some delays in the initial surgery, so it’s good that they got it done relatively quickly. It’s a six to 12 month recovery period from the surgery, so any delays would only add time in 2012 that Howard would miss.

I said here that the Phillies could survive parts of 2012 without Howard. Their lineup is still very strong and the starting pitching staff is probably the best in the league.

Now, even though the official recovery time is six to 12 months, it’s more than likely that the actual time is somewhere right in between them. That’s where we get the mid-May to early-June recovery time from.

It’s doubtful that the Phillies will have any reason to rush Howard back. Make no mistake, they want him in the starting lineup as soon as is humanly possible, but they will be in a good enough position to be patient with him. The last thing you would ever want to do would be to have him come back too early and get hurt again.

Howard’s not a speed guy, but his swing is very powerful. That’s going to put a lot of pressure on the injured areas.

But again, while they can likely win without him, Howard’s power will be nearly impossible to replace. It may not show up in wins and losses, but it will show up in how impressive they are.

The more time he misses, the more it hurts Philadelphia’s chances of getting to the playoffs and winning the World Series.

The fact that the surgery came today likely means that Howard will be back in full swing by the end of next season.

With a completely healthy Howard at the end of the year, the 2012 Phillies will be left with no excuses.

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