MONDAY: Honeywell could be ready to pick up a ball again in January of 2020, Topkin tweets. His replacement ulnar collateral ligament is just fine, which represents a silver lining to the unfortunate situation.
SATURDAY: Top Rays prospect Brent Honeywell, on the mend from an April 2018 Tommy John Surgery, fractured a bone in his right elbow during a scheduled bullpen in Port Charlotte, Florida, and is out for the season, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. A surgery is scheduled for Monday.
Honeywell, a consensus top-30 prospect in every major outlet even after the Tommy John, had already experienced a major setback in his rehabilitation process this April when he was temporarily shelved with forearm soreness, an injury often precursor to major elbow damage. The 24-year-old’s vaunted screwball, perhaps the only pure version of the pitch used with regularity among professional hurlers today, was felt in some circles to be the tear’s root, though Honeywell only features it sporadically and had never been hurt prior to the surgery.
It’s obviously a brutal hit for both Honeywell and the Rays, though the latter can at least can hang its hat on an impressive young group of big-league arms and emerging talents below. Topkin, in a follow-up tweet, writes that Honeywell’s 2020 outlook is at yet unclear, though the club should know more after the Monday surgery is complete.
In 416 minor-league innings before last season, Honeywell had set down 458 batters on strikes while walking just 93 en route to a 2.88 ERA. He had little issue with the longball until he arrived for 2017 at Triple-A Durham, but his grounder rates remained robust. He was near-unanimously projected as a #2 starter in the majors should his stuff have returned to form. The future outlook now, of course, is far cloudier.
Was it the same one that Gavin Floyd fractured in game that one time?
That one was nasty. I remember it swelling up immediately.
I remember that too. nasty break.
Pour guy. Only seems to have bad luck right now.
hoping he can overcome this setback as well.
Hopefully he’s not Jarrod Parker 2.0
He was the first name I thought of too
That sucks.
Really sucks. Fortunately for the Rays (and not for Honeywell) he suffered his injury in AAA and they haven’t lost 2 seasons of control. But this really sucks for him.
Yeah, caring about team control vs caring that his career might be over, yikesss
He is just pointing out the obvious for the cheapo Rays…..
S4 spews garbage out of his mouth quite frequently. I tend to ignore.
there was nothing wrong with his comment. perfectly reasonable to point out that the focus in a situation like this should be on the player and his future, not crap like team control.
They named that pitch that way because it screws your arm up…
Tug McGraw only pitched nearly 20y throwing a wicked screwball, so it’s not like everyone hurt their arm throwing the thing.
1. its was a joke
2. naming 1 case vs dozens if not hundreds of other examples is a L
Alright, Dallas Braden. There’s another one.
Hopefully this surgery will be successful and he will be ready in spring or at least early in 2020. Sad to see such a talented kid get derailed like this
Really hate this for him, he is such a nice guy. Best wishes for a speedy recovery!!
Poor guy can’t catch a break. Hope to see him recover string and crack the 2020 Opening day roster.
Big blow to Honeywell, a blow to Tampa also. They could have had a fresh, lethal injection of a promising young arm down the stretch. Terrible news.
hate to see this happen to any player. hope he fights through it. Winkler of the Braves made it through the struggle.
No! Bummer!
steroids weakens bone marrow while increases exposure to non-contact injuries, maybe he had really weak bone density..
Surprised this comment hasn’t been attacked yet.
Flashbacks of jarod parker breaking his arm several years ago
Man, that’s terrible for the Rays and Honeywell. I caught a few of his starts in 2017 in Durham and he really impressed me. Very unique arm to boot.