In December, Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. recapped a conversation he had with slugger Ryan Howard to a local radio station, saying, “I told him that in our situation it would probably bode better for the organization not with him but without him,” and adding, “if he’s with us, then we’ll work around him.”

Howard is still with the Phillies as they open spring training camp in Clearwater, Fla. And an important part of the process of working around him, apparently, is apologizing to him for stating publicly that his very presence hurts the team. From the Philadelphia Daily News:

Within the last two weeks, the embattled general manager spoke with the beleaguered first baseman. Amaro, mainly, wanted to make amends for comments he made concerning Howard’s place on the team two months ago. “Frankly, I apologized for those comments that I made that were public,” Amaro said. “And I think he appreciated that. Other than that, I want to keep the conversation private. It was a good talk.”

Amaro traded away veterans Jimmy Rollins and Marlon Byrd this offseason, moves that seemed to indicate the coming of a long-awaited rebuilding phase in Philadelphia. But veterans like Howard, Cole Hamels, Cliff Lee, Jonathan Papelbon, Chase Utley, and Carlos Ruiz are still with the team, and Amaro has a lot of work to do to turn the franchise around.

Howard will be by far the most difficult piece to move, since the Phillies still owe him at least $60 million and he’s nothing like the player he once was. By WAR (wins above replacement), actually, Amaro’s initial statement was correct, however ill-advised: Howard has been worth -1.5 wins over the past three seasons compared to the average, readily available alternative at his position.

Presumably, the Phillies would have to swallow a ton of money to get rid of Howard now, so unless they simply want to turn the page and clear a roster spot, there’s no sense giving him away when there’s still some slim chance he’ll turn his career around and prove a serviceable slugger again.

At this point, Amaro’s best bet for recouping any bit of the payroll he owes Howard is to cross his fingers and hope for a recovery this spring or early this season, flipping Howard to whatever contender loses its first baseman to injury and needs to scramble for a replacement. And that process, naturally, will go a lot more smoothly if Howard and the team are on good terms. So Amaro’s apology seems like a reasonable step.