Feb. 8 -- HOWARD SIGNS 3-YEAR, $54MM DEAL (UPDATED)

BY SCOTT LAUBER

A source has now confirmed an earlier report that Ryan Howard has agreed to a three-year, $54 million contract extension with the Phillies. Calls from The News Journal to Ruben Amaro Jr. and Howard's agent, Casey Close, haven't been returned. (UPDATE:) But now, at 12:38 p.m., the Phillies have released an announcement confirming the deal.

Obviously, this deal makes sense for the Phillies. It covers Howard's three remaining seasons of arbitration eligibility before he becomes a free agent after the 2011 season. And although I'm sure Howard's salary would escalate in 2010 and 2011 (again, I'm working to pin down those details), the Phillies would be able to keep his compensation under relative control. If Howard went through three more rounds of arbitration, it's entirely possible, likely even, that he'd make more than $54 million.

Stay tuned throughout the day for more.

(Updated, 12:38 p.m.): Here are some quotes from a statement released by the Phillies:

Howard: "I'm happy to have this done and to know that I'll be in Philadelphia for at least another three years. Both sides are happy, and now I'm just focused on getting the season started and having fun."

Amaro: "We're very pleased to have avoided the arbitration process, not just for this year, but also for the next two. Ryan is clearly one of the top power hitters and run producers in the major leagues and is a very important part of our championship club."

By the way, Howard has been training in Clearwater since early January, and according to what Amaro told me the other day, he has been working hard on his defense with new third-base/infield coach Sam Perlozzo.

(Updated, 4:11 p.m.): Howard will make $15 million in 2009, $19 million in 2010 and $20 million in 2011. According to the Associated Press, there are $1 million bonuses if Howard wins the MVP in 2009 or 2010. If he finishes second in either year, he'll get a $500,000 bonus. And the Phillies are free to trade Howard without penalty after Nov. 1, 2010, but if he's traded before then, he would get an additional $1 million. Once again, there's a strong chance he could've made more than the base $54 million if he'd continued through the arbitration process. So, although the Phillies were unable to sign him through any of his free-agent years, they do keep his salary from reaching ridiculous proportions through the arbitration process.

Just returned from Amaro's press conference. Will post some quotes shortly.

(Updated, 5:22 p.m.): Close hasn't returned a message, and Howard won't be available to speak until later this week, probably Friday, at Bright House Field. But, as promised, a few quotes from Amaro:

On why the Phillies made this deal: "One of the things this gives us is cost certainty. We know what kind of dollars we're going to have to give to one of the best offensive players in the game. We know where we're at, and we can continue to grow our organization accordingly. Our job is to put a championship-caliber club on the field every single year. Knowing exactly where the dollars are going to be, it helps me a lot because we can work around trying to continue that trend. But we take a lot of risk, and Ryan may have left some dollars on the table based on what he's done up until this time in his career. He's put himself at levels that no one ever has gone before. But, again, that's probably why it was the right thing to do for our organization because we know exactly where we're going to go."

On previous negotiations with Howard: "Things that happened prior with Ryan, I don't know why they were depicted in a certain way, but they weren't really adversarial. It was just a matter of two sides agreeing to disagree, and that happens a lot in any kind of negotiations in any kind of business. Up until now, the parties just agreed to disagree. It didn't make us love Ryan any less, and I don't think it made Ryan love us any less. The people who thought this was an adversarial issue, those are people who are not involved in the situation and can speculate all they want. The fact is it has not been adversarial."

More later.