Ryan Howard has called it a career.
The 2006 National League MVP, who was one of baseball's most feared sluggers during his prime with the Philadelphia Phillies, announced his retirement Tuesday in a Players' Tribune essay entitled "Thank You, Philly."
The 38-year-old retires having spent his entire 13-year career with the Phillies, though his last major-league appearance came in 2016. Last year, he made brief appearances in Triple-A with the Braves and Rockies organizations in a comeback attempt that proved unsuccessful; he did not play professionally in 2018.
"It's been a wild ride … and I’m glad that I got to stay on it for as long as I did," Howard wrote. "Which I guess has really also kind of become my overall perspective on things: How, when it's come to these last 14 years of mine - nothing has ever been easy for long, and nothing has ever been perfect for long.
"But I wouldn’t have it any other way."
Thank you for everything, @ryanhoward!
— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) September 4, 2018
Enjoy retirement. #BigPiece pic.twitter.com/lfZQbrXp2p
Drafted by the Phillies in 2001, Howard debuted to much fanfare three years later and won Rookie of the Year in 2005 by hitting 22 homers in 88 games. The following season, he crushed a franchise-record 58 homers en route to being named the Senior Circuit's MVP.
From 2007-11, when the Phillies won five straight division titles and made two World Series appearances, Howard averaged 41 homers and 129 RBIs a year, and surpassed the 40-homer mark three times, including an MLB-high 48 in 2008. He hit three homers in the 2008 World Series, which the Phillies won in five games over the Tampa Bay Rays, and was also named the 2009 NLCS MVP.
But a torn Achilles tendon during the 2011 playoffs ultimately derailed his career. It took him over two seasons to fully recover, and he played more than 130 games just once during his final five major-league seasons.
Howard retires as the owner of a .258/.343/.515 career slash line with 382 home runs (second-most in Phillies franchise history), 277 doubles, 1,194 RBIs, and 709 walks. A two-time home-run champion and three-time RBI leader, Howard finished in the top five of NL MVP voting four times (including his 2006 win), was a three-time All-Star, and took home one Silver Slugger Award.
Howard also struck out 1,843 times during his career, the 14th-highest total in baseball history.
