PORT CHARLOTTE – J.P. Howell feels like his old self again after missing a season.
Of course, the Tampa Bay left-handed reliever and ebullient clubhouse presence didn’t miss the 2011 campaign – he rejoined the team in May, then wobbled down a road marked by inconsistency and intense frustration.
The season he missed was spring, and that contributed to his fall.
Now, for the first time since injuring his shoulder in March 2010, Howell is in camp healthy and exuding optimism. At a time of year when baseball hopes spring eternal, there’s even reason to think he might spring back to the deceptive, trick-pitch artist who proved so valuable to the Rays in 2008 and 2009.
“I feel great,” Howell said. “I knew all I needed was just a little time and an offseason to prepare. That’s what I missed last year. I went from rehab to the games, and for guys down the road, it’s important to make sure you know what you’re doing during the rehab, which I did for my shoulder. But also it’s tough, because you’ve also got to find a way to get your legs and core involved, and that’s what I did not do.”
He felt like any work in that regard might damage his left shoulder, repaired prior to the start of the 2010 schedule. The major surgery forced him to miss that entire season, all of spring training last year and the first two months of 2011.
“I couldn’t hold weights with my hands because my shoulder wasn’t ready for that,” he said. “There’s ways to do it. But definitely in this offseason, I got to prepare and get everything in order. It’s been a long haul, and this really is my first (normal) offseason in a long time.”
Howell actually missed out on the usual spring training in 2009 as well, participating instead with the US team in the World Baseball Classic. He went straight from there into what became a workhorse role as the de facto Rays closer during the summer – until tiring and faltering late in the season, perhaps sowing the seeds for the shoulder injury that would eventually derail him.
“So, this is the first time in a while that I’ve had time to collect myself and really sit down and think about what I want to do and how I want to approach things,” he said. “It takes a lot of stress out when you’re prepared in your mind.”
The added work will also give something Howell hasn’t had in a while prior to pitching in games that count:
“It’s the repetitions, that’s what help you be able to hit your spot,” he said. “My problem last year is that I wasn’t able to repeat pitches. I could throw one good one and the next one – nine times out of 10 – it wasn’t going to be the same as that previous pitch. Or vice versa, I’d throw a bad one and never got to throw the good one. This year, I’ll be able to repeat it three, four, five times in a row. You want to be about 80 percent on your pitches when you’re getting in the area of where you’re trying to throw them. Last year, I was probably near 30 percent. It’s a big difference.”
There was nobody on the Rays whose pain you could feel more than Howell’s last year when he struggled – and he never felt lower than in Game 3 of the American League Division Series against Texas. With the Rangers leading 2-1 with two outs in the seventh and the bases loaded, Howell was brought in to face left-handed hitting Josh Hamilton. He got ahead in the count 1-0, but then threw a slider that Hamilton lashed for a two-run single – ultimately the difference in a game Texas would win 4-3.
After the game, Howell couldn’t contain his misery when asked about giving up the hit in that situation: "Disgusting. You know, it made me sick. You know, it feels bad. I feel terrible. I feel like a loser. I feel like the reason why (we lost). I feel a lot of things, but one of them is definitely disgust, a little disappointment. But I know I can do it. I know I can do it. And it's just, I gotta go do it, that's it."
Howell never stopped believing, in spite of the anguish he felt.
“I knew I had to just fight,” he said. “It was a great opportunity I was in, as bad as it seemed and went, I was just thankful just to be out there. And that’s the difference this year. I can actually focus on my job and what I’m supposed to do, as opposed to, ‘Yeah, I’m healthy again another day.' That was my approach last year, more just feeling happy to be there. It was more like being a rookie again, and all I could do was work hard and stick to it and I knew that it could carry over to this year.”
Flash forward to the first week of camp in Port Charlotte, with pitchers and catchers reporting – along with most of the position players ahead of schedule. Manager Joe Maddon, who has stuck by Howell steadfastly, expressed optimism when asked about his reliever’s progress.
“I know there’s a lot of motivation behind J.P.’s offseason and coming here this spring training,” he said. “Being further removed from surgery (helps along with) the confidence level that we’re hoping to build during the course of this spring training.”
Maddon knows Howell wished he could have that pitch against Hamilton back, but pointed out that the 28-year-old was good against left-handed hitters. (He was also good against Hamilton, having held him to two hits while striking him out three times in the previous eight encounters).
The challenge, he says, is to get Howell off to a solid, confident start “where he starts to get comfy again and feels good about what he’s doing."
That’s critical after the bumps in the road last season, in which he finished 2-3 with a 6.16 ERA in 30 2/3 innings, allowing 30 hits, five homers and an opponent’s batting average of .259. What was the deciding factor to bring him back after such a rocky showing?
“If you look at his body of work against lefthanders, it wasn’t that bad – it was actually pretty good,” Maddon said. “He’d always been even better against righties, and the righties got him last year. That’s where things kind of broke (down).
“Furthermore, he’s a guy coming off a really severe surgery, not just a minor surgery. So, you have to be patient. On top of that, you’re talking about one of the best (personality) makeup guys I’ve ever been affiliated with. So, you have to weigh everything and believe he will bounce back – as long as he’s healthy. You have a very motivated, focused pitcher who’s had a lot of success.”
His biggest year came in 2008, the Rays' World Series season, when he had a record of 6-1 and ERA of 2.22, followed by his 2009 showing of 7-5 with a 2.84 ERA and expanded work as closer.
“For me, it was easy that we’d want him back,” Maddon said. ”He drips with intangibles. If you get him physically well again, I think you’re going to see a lot of what you’ve seen in the past.”
Howell isn’t content to settle for the pitcher he once was. “I want to shoot above and beyond that,” he said. “It’s definitely possible. I’m older now and have a little bit more knowledge and I know some tricks of the trade now. I know how to use my body more. I know how to study film. I’m in a great organization that gives you a lot of information and keeps you ahead of the ball.“
Now, with a full camp ahead of him for a change, the question is whether Howell can spring forward as the wily reliever Rays fans remember.
