While the overall story of the Phillies 2016 season has been moderately and unexpectedly interesting until very recently, the plot surrounding first baseman Ryan Howard has become, somewhat like the subject himself, a bit old and slow-moving.
Howard is stuck in time, unable to return to previous seasons of glory, unable to transport himself a year ahead to what will certainly be his first season of retirement. He is increasingly defined by what he is not, rather than what he is. He is not the regular first baseman any longer. He is not a strict platoon player, either, avoiding only the lefthanded starters who have bedeviled him for some time.