Ryan Howard Injury: Torn Achilles Likely To Sideline Phillies' First Baseman Until Summer

As you've no doubt heard, last night's decisive Division Series Game 5 ended in bizarre fashion, with Ryan Howard hitting a ground ball to second baseman Nick Punto and almost immediately collapsing to the ground in a heap.

As you've no doubt also heard, the pre-MRI speculation was that Howard suffered a serious Achilles injury.

According to Philadelphia radio's Howard Eskin, the speculation was correct:

@howardeskin
Howard Eskin Word I get from inside Phillies... Ryan Howard had MRI 2day and did reveal a torn Achilles tendon left leg. Likely out till next may or june
Oct 08 via Twitter for BlackBerry®FavoriteRetweetReply

Or longer. With these things you never know. Remember how long it took Chase Utley to come back from his injury this summer? Remember how Kendrys Morales never came back?

Not that they had the same injury Howard's suffered. But "May or June" is both imprecise and distant, so one certainly can't rule out July at this point, either.

Either way, the Phillies should survive. Frankly, Howard wasn't a great player this season, and we wouldn't have expected him to be great next season. He does play almost every day, and he does hit right-handed pitching real well. However, with Hunter Pence, Domonic Brown and John Mayberry all fighting for time in the corner outfield spots, maybe someone can take a crash course this winter in playing first base.