{"id":381058,"date":"2026-01-01T04:47:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T04:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/381058\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T04:47:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T04:47:09","slug":"phillies-former-no-1-prospect-stays-in-japan-rather-than-return-to-mlb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/381058\/","title":{"rendered":"Phillies’ former No. 1 prospect stays in Japan rather than return to MLB"},"content":{"rendered":"

Phillies’ former No. 1 prospect stays in Japan rather than return to MLB<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It’s not that long ago that Spencer Howard was the No. 1 prospect in the Philadelphia Phillies<\/a>‘ system.<\/p>\n

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But the right-handed pitcher never really made it work in MLB, and he’s sticking in Japan after his first season there.<\/p>\n

Howard spent the 2025 season in NPB with the Rakuten Eagles.<\/p>\n

He has signed for 2026 with the Yomiuri Giants, according to Yakyu Cosmopolitan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In 2025 with the Eagles, Howard had a 2.22 ERA in 48.2 innings pitched.<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0Team USA’s projected WBC lineup is incredible<\/a><\/p>\n

Howard made his MLB debut in 2020, then was listed as the Phillies’ top prospect by MLB Pipeline heading into 2021.<\/p>\n

In that ensuing season, Howard had a 5.72 ERA before being traded to the Texas Rangers<\/a> for Kyle Gibson and Ian Kennedy.<\/p>\n

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From 2021-23 with the Rangers, Howard pitched in 62.2 innings but had just an 8.37 ERA.<\/p>\n

Howard was traded to the Yankees in 2023, and he also pitched for the Giants and Guardians before he headed to Japan.<\/p>\n

The big righty has thrown 144 MLB innings and has a 7.00 ERA.<\/p>\n

Now 29 years old, Howard may have one more path back to MLB in a year or two if he wants it. For now, he’s chosen to remain in Japan, just with a new ballclub.<\/p>\n

More MLB news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Phillies’ former No. 1 prospect stays in Japan rather than return to MLB originally appeared on The Sporting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":381059,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[186032,3471,16538,363,480,186031,186030,99,2330,12404,141735],"class_list":{"0":"post-381058","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-ian-kennedy","9":"tag-japan","10":"tag-kyle-gibson","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-philadelphia-phillies","13":"tag-rakuten-eagles","14":"tag-spencer-howard","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-texas-rangers","17":"tag-yankees","18":"tag-yomiuri-giants"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381058\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}