Ryan Howard

Phillies assistant general manager Scott Proefrock said Tuesday that the club is hopeful Ryan Howard (Achilles surgery) will return to the lineup sometime in May.

“We?ll be happy if we get five months out of him, quite frankly,” said Proefrock. “Anything in front of the first of May would be a bonus. All indications are he’s feeling great and is in great shape. Everything is geared toward sometime in May. From our perspective, anything before that would be great. We don?t want a situation where he reinjures himself or stresses it so we?ll err on the cautious side.” Howard was cleared to start some strength and power exercises last week and should be ready for baseball activities in the early part of spring training. The Phillies will likely rely on a combination of Ty Wigginton, John Mayberry, Jr. and possibly Jim Thome at first base until he’s ready to return.

Ryan Howard (Achilles surgery) has been cleared to start some strength and power exercises and is likely to begin baseball activities in six weeks.

That timetable means he should be ready for baseball activities around the beginning of spring training. He’ll start by fielding grounders before progressing to hitting. “I can’t even speculate (if he’ll be ready by Opening Day),” general manager Ruben Amaro said. “All I know is that it’s nice to know that at some point in spring training, that he’ll start doing some light baseball activities. I think it is good news.” It still seems like Opening Day is probably a longshot, but we’ll have a better idea once Howard gets to spring training and goes through drills.