Amaro rewards Phillies slugger

Ruben Amaro hasn’t shied away from taking risks in his year-plus as Phillies GM. And he isn’t starting now.

Amaro locked up Ryan Howard with a record-setting, $125 million deal. He becomes the second-highest paid player in baseball, behind Alex Rodriguez.

“There’s always risk when you’re doing guaranteed deals, but with what Ryan has done and what we think he’ll do in the future, I think it’s a good risk,” Amaro said.

The risk is investing that much in someone who will be 36 years old at the end of the contract’s life. It also gives them very little wiggle room as they go to the table next with Jayson Werth and potentially Jimmy Rollins.

“Naturally, we’d like to keep all those guys,” Amaro said. “We’ll go on a case by case basis.”

Howard doesn’t expect any drop-off in production.

“It’s just a matter of going out there and continuing to do what I’ve been doing the last couple of years,” Howard said.