Ryan Howard requests 18 million

A situation that is likely going to get dicey got under way today: the Ryan Howard salary arbitration. Today was the day that players and teams exchanged salary arbitration numbers and the Phillies and Howard are already 4 million dollars apart. The big slugger requested 18 million dollars while the Phillies offered 14.

Howard already won a huge case last year that gave him a 10 million dollar contract and now he is requesting the 3rd highest amount in arbitration history. The Phillies are willing to give him a nice 4 million dollar raise, but 4 million more on top of that seems a bit steep. Howard did put up nice numbers and helped the Phils win the World Series but I'm not sure his salary should be nearly double what he got last season.

Stay tuned, this will only get more interesting. It's a good first sign that the Phillies want to give Howard a raise but we will see if the Big Guy is willing to accept anything less than what he thinks he is worth.