It was a passing comment – one like you often hear in a major league clubhouse. In this case it was the Dodgers clubhouse at Camelback Ranch during spring training 2015. The Dodgers were coming up on their one and only scheduled day off for the entire spring, and oh were they looking forward to it.

Veteran Dodgers left-hander J.P. Howell asked me “You doing anything special on tomorrow’s off day?”

I told him that I was driving up to Sedona, AZ with my son and some friends who were visiting from British Columbia to spend the day with a former co-worker of mine who now lives there.

“Sweet!” replied Howell.

“What about you, J.P.? You got any plans for tomorrow?” I asked the extremely likable (then) 31-year-old Modesto, CA native.

“I’m not doing nothing tomorrow,” Howell replied emphatically. “Well… except going to In-N-Out Burger, of course.”

Again, it was just one of those fun, off-the-wall exchanges that had absolutely nothing to do with baseball but clearly showed just how down-to-earth J.P. Howell is. So when it was announced by the Dodgers on Wednesday that the now 32-year-old lefty was exercising his player option for 2016, I, for one, was ecstatic – and I have to assume the folks at In-N-Out are pretty happy about it too.

Any way you slice it, getting J.P. Howell for $6.25 million is an absolute bargain.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

Howell is coming off yet another great season with the Dodgers – his third – in which he posted a 6-1 record with an absolutely outstanding 1.43 ERA – tops among all Dodgers pitchers, even 2015 Cy Young hopeful Zack Greinke (1.66) and Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen (2.41). In his 65 games (44.0 innings pitched), Howell struck out 39 and walked only 14 for a K/9 of 8.0 and a K/BB ratio of 2.79.

But where you really see Howell’s value to the Dodgers is when you look at his numbers over the past three seasons. In his three years with the Dodgers, J.P. is 13-5 with a 1.97 ERA, has struck out 141 and walked 62 in his combined 155.0 innings of work. Simply put, he has been the most consistent pitcher out of the Dodgers bullpen – even better than Kenley Jansen has been over the past three seasons. That being said, it really isn’t fair to compare the two because in addition to Jansen’s 292 strikeouts and 43 walks in 194.1 innings pitched over the last three seasons, Jansen has 108 saves compared to Howell’s one, so it’s an apples and oranges kind of thing.

Although the Dodgers have yet to comment on Howell exercising his $6.25 million player option for next season, how can they not be absolutely thrilled about it? In all probability, Howell could have easily landed at least a one-year / $10 million deal as a free agent elsewhere and possibly even a two or three-year deal worth a lot more than that.

So why is he staying with the Dodgers when he could have done better elsewhere?

It has to be the Double-Doubles at In-N-Out Burger.

In-N-Out Burger – Phoenix, AZ