He appeared in eight seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) between 1947 and 1956 for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Cincinnati Reds and Brooklyn Dodgers.

With the outbreak of World War II, he served in the United States Army in the European Theater of Operations[2] and missed the 1944–45 seasons.

The 1946 Royals, led by second baseman Jackie Robinson, won the league championship and the Junior World Series, but are famous as the first racially integrated team in "organized baseball" since the 1880s.

On May 3, he was traded to the Pirates in a multi-player transaction headlined by former Brooklyn starting pitcher Kirby Higbe, and played his first game three days later, going hitless in three at bats against the Boston Braves' ace right-hander, Johnny Sain.

Selected by Cincinnati in the 1948 Rule 5 draft, Howell spent the next four seasons (1949–52) in the big leagues with the Reds, serving as their most-used catcher in both 1950 and 1951.

Howell was sent back to the Royals for most of the 1956 campaign, but was recalled by the pennant-bound Dodgers in August for his final seven games of major league service.