Rays top pitching prospect Brent Honeywell exited today’s workout with an arm injury that is of “potential major concern” to the team, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (all Twitter links). Per Topkin, Honeywell threw eight to 10 pitches before cursing loudly and walking off the mound with a trainer. Manager Kevin Cash tells Topkin that the early diagnosis is a forearm strain, and Honeywell is set to undergo further evaluations.
Honeywell, 22, is considered among the game’s elite minor leaguers, ranking among baseball’s top 20 or so overall prospects on virtually every major publication. The former No. 72 overall draft pick enjoyed a terrific season in Triple-A against older competition in 2017, tossing 123 2/3 innings with 11.1 K/9, 2.3 BB/9, 0.8 HR/9 and a 41.2 percent ground-ball rate en route to a 3.64 ERA, a 2.84 FIP and a 2.77 xFIP.
While most consider Honeywell to be ready for Major League action, or at least very close to MLB readiness, Tampa Bay wasn’t expected to break camp with Honeywell in the rotation. Rather, he figured to open the season in Triple-A — both to finish off his development and also to buy the Rays an additional year of club control by delaying his service clock, as many teams tend to do with their top young talent. The forearm issue could well delay his start to the season and, of course, could be a portent to a more severe injury.
Tampa Bay recently thinned out its rotation mix by trading Jake Odorizzi to the Twins, though they quickly replenished the lost depth by picking up Anthony Banda — another largely MLB-ready young starter — in the Steven Souza trade with the D-backs and Yankees. Any lengthy absence for Honeywell would deprive the organization of its highest-upside minor league arm, but the Rays do possess a considerably deep stock of big-league-ready starters, even if many of them are lacking in Major League experience.
[Related: Tampa Bay Rays depth chart]
The Rays are set to open the season with Chris Archer, Blake Snell, Jake Faria and Nathan Eovaldi in a four-man rotation, Topkin recently reported, with Matt Andriese beginning the year as a multi-inning reliever and eventually sliding into the fifth spot in the rotation. Looming in the upper minors are Banda, Jose De Leon, Ryan Yarbrough and Yonny Chirinos, each of whom has had a full season of Triple-A work under his belt at this point. Both Yarbrough and Chirinos enjoyed particularly strong years in the rotation for the Rays’ Triple-A affiliate last year, and each of that group is already on the 40-man roster. Righties Jose Mujica and Hunter Wood have less experience and success in the upper levels, but each is on the 40-man roster and could plausibly see MLB time in 2018.
That’s a blow to their depth by the sounds of it. Hope it’s not too major though it sounds like it is
Tough news for a depleted team. Hope he’s alright for the sake of the Rays and their fans.
This guy is a stud. Rays fans getting hit hard here lately
This guy is not a stud. He might BECOME a stud if all things go right for him, but he is not one yet.
he is a stud believe me, you should see this guy pitch
Either way, no fun seeing any player get hurt, especially a top prospect
Filthy screwball and maybe the best since Fernando mania! Yes a stud that throws strikes with 4 pitches… but now two years away again!!!
That’s too bad. I know he rarely throws it, but I wonder how much his screwball played a factor in causing this injury.
Probably absolutely zero. Pitchers go down constantly with Tommy John and almost none of them throw a screwball
Fernando Valenzuela threw a screwball and he pitched over 250 innings for 6 consecutive seasons from 21 to 26. It’s not the screwball’s fault that guys are developing the wrong muscles for pitching.
Hope it isnt anything serious but it is better to happen in spring training than at any other time. It allows him at the worst to be ready for ’19. Have to wait for the tests to come back to know how bad
Considering TJ surgery is usually a 15 month recovery, Honeywell would be looking at the All-Star break of 2019 before returning
Welp…when it rains, it pours.
This is why people stopped throwing screwballs.
DUN DUN DUN
This was the same pitcher who was telling Archer to put up ace numbers?
well maybe Archer should start to put up ace numbers on a consistent basis instead of giving home runs late in the game
Also the same guy who tweeted about Bryce Harper to not make baseball fun
Archer is far from being an ace
Oh well, I guess that means it will just be an extra season before he gets dumped for peanuts.
The kid throws a screw ball along with like 3-4 other pitches. I was literally thinking to myself yesterday that this kid is gonna have arm problems eventually
You could say that about pretty much every pitcher and be right more often than not. “Arm problems” is such a vague thing that many pitchers would fit that bill
You are such a troll. Why waste your time typing such a dumb statement that you believe is such a valid point that has to be made. I’m sorry I was so specific in my comment on a trade rumor page to straight prevent your undying desire to troll all people
It’s so unfortunate that even if this turns out to be a small amount of damage like a strain, the recovery time is 1/2 season to 3/4 of a season to return to ready action. We wish him the best and hope he isn’t hurt too badly.
“I think the biggest thing is for the ace of the staff right now to be the ace, you’ve got to throw up some numbers out there. Impress me. Impress me.”
U
C
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A
With Honeywell at the stadium whenever he returns, the Rays are one team that won’t have to buy a humidifier to store baseballs.
Tj!!
Perfect candidate for the PTBNL the rays need to send over to the halos!
Uh-oh, not good. Hopefully Honeywell will recover quickly and fully.
Inb4 Tommy John surgery