Howard has impressed in camp but isn't necessarily favored to open the season in the Phillies' rotation, Todd Zolecki reports.
Aaron Nola, Zack Wheeler and Zach Eflin are locked into the top three spots, and the Phillies signed veteran starters Matt Moore and Chase Anderson to major-league deals, which suggests they're favored for the final two openings. Howard is one of the Phillies' top prospects and should be a rotation staple eventually, but he'd made just six Double-A starts prior to his big-league debut last year and didn't look good at the highest level. The impressive strikeout prowess he'd shown in the minors didn't manifest in his first six major-league starts, as he struck out a modest 20.4 percent of opposing batters en route to a 5.92 ERA and 1.66 WHIP. His fastball had previously sat in the upper 90s but averaged a comparatively modest 94.1 mph, and his conditioning didn't look great. His velocity and conditioning appear to be back this spring, but that might not be enough to keep him from opening in the bullpen or minors.