Nick Howard (baseball)


Nick Paul Howard is an American professional baseball pitcher who is a free agent. He played college baseball at Virginia. He was drafted by the Reds in the first round of the 2014 Major League Baseball Draft and pitched for the Reds organization in parts of 5 seasons.

Career

Howard attended St. John's College High School in Washington, DC. Howard was both a pitcher and infielder at the University of Virginia. As a freshman in 2012, he appeared in 19 games as a relief pitcher and also had 52 at-bats in 26 games. As a pitcher he was 3–0 and had a 2.81 earned run average and 37 strikeouts in innings. As a batter he hit.346/.435/.404. As a sophomore in 2013, he appeared in 13 games as a pitcher with 12 starts and 50 games as a batter. He was 6–4 with a 3.38 ERA and 52 strikeouts in innings. He hit.323/.344/.449 with three home runs. For his play, he was named first team All-ACC. As a junior in 2014, he took over as the Cavaliers' closer. He again was named All-ACC.
The Cincinnati Reds selected Howard in the first round, 19th overall, of the 2014 Major League Baseball draft. Howard signed and was assigned to the Dayton Dragons, where he spent his first professional season, posting a 2-1 record, 3.74 ERA, and a 1.16 WHIP in 33.2 innings. He returned to Dayton in 2015, but struggled; he pitched to a 6.63 ERA, giving up 28 runs in 38 innings. In 2016, he pitched for the Daytona Tortugas, posting a 6.75 ERA in only 20 innings before an injury caused him to miss the rest of the season. Howard was also forced to miss 2017 due to the injury. He returned in 2018 and pitched for both Daytona and the Pensacola Blue Wahoos, pitching to a combined 3-4 record with a 5.13 ERA in 38 relief appearances between both teams. On June 23, 2019, the Reds released Howard.
On August 13, 2019, Howard signed a minor league deal with the Kansas City Royals. He became a free agent following the 2019 season.