The Dodgers lost pitching coach Rick Honeycutt to retirement earlier this month, though they appear to be closing in on a replacement. They’re working toward a deal to promote bullpen coach Mark Prior to take over for Honeycutt, Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets. It won’t be a surprising hire, as president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman suggested upon Honeycutt’s exit that Prior would grab the reins.
Prior, who’s now 39 years old, still counts as one of the most hyped pitching prospects of the past couple decades. He was a member of the Cubs from 2002-06, a span in which he ranged from good to excellent, but a rash of injuries ruined Prior’s MLB career and prevented him from pitching professionally after 2013. Prior then spent time as the Padres’ minor league pitching coordinator for three seasons before the Dodgers hired him to oversee their bullpen in advance of the 2018 campaign.
Now, assuming Prior does succeed Honeycutt, he’ll be inheriting a pitching staff with no shortage of talent. The Dodgers’ relief corps was somewhat of a sore spot in 2019, especially during a Game 5 meltdown against the Nationals in the NLDS, though the club’s pitchers still ranked at or near the top of the majors in ERA (first), K/BB ratio (first) and fWAR (second). Unfortunately for LA, it’s now at risk of losing starters Hyun-Jin Ryu and Rich Hill to free agency in the coming weeks. However, the big-spending team could re-sign either or both and/or go outside the organization this offseason to give Prior more to work with in 2020.
A change needs to be made. Let’s see what Prior can do.
Are you saying that he will be better than the prior coach?
Did you even read the comment?
did you?
Did you?
The prior coach was prior to Prior, who will be the coach prior to the next one.
Well done Captain. You’ve made your Mark.
Thanks. I try to pitch in where I can.
AJ Ellis to replace the prior bullpen coach?
Did I?
AJ Ellis? Please no.
He IS the Prior pitching coach.
Prior. Great hior.
Prior to the previous coach?
Because the Dodgers had one of the best pitching staffs over the past decade?
Also, people can retire when they wish. That is called retirement.
I weep for the future of this nation.
Do I remember this correctly? The Twins selected hometown favorite Joe Mauer with the first pick in the draft, which left Prior, the consensus #1 pick, available to the Cubs at #2 . . . ?
Not sure, but if so, the Twins made the right call. Prior was awesome at his peak but his career value pales in comparison to that of Mauer
Honeycutt was awesome, watching him walk was painful. Hope he rests & gets better. Glad he is staying in the Dodger organization.
Boy, Doyers sure love to hire reject Padres coaches and player personnel—Billy Gasparino, Dave Roberts and now Mark Prior.
Padres really blew it by hiring Andy Green instead of Roberts, and not recognizing the talent of Gasparino and Prior
SD blew it again not hiring Washington this offseason.
Ron Washington: “Did someone say blow?”
lol
Hahahah nicely done
nymetsking- no you didn’t.
But incredibly funny. Thank you for the laugh after a long day.
I think that’s the first time a comment actually made me lol
+1 for the laugh
The Padres wish they had hired Roberts instead of being cute with some guy no one has heard of. Good thing they had a chance to not make that mistake this time around…. oh wait
Can’t believe you actually hit the Post Comment button. Padres can’t even sniff the playoffs, unlike all of “rejects” that the Dodgers hired from the Padres
What’s all this sniffing and blowing all about? Can’t get that Ron Washington tune out of my head.
Yes keyser the Padres have certainly made some unwise decisions on coaching talent. The Padres are on the way to nowhere at their current state
Yeah, Roberts was a huge mistake.
do not sign hill he is done ,please no more blister boy.
Wrong post. Wait until there’s actually a Hill post. Also, I disagree.
I agree with your disagreement. D.Mountain was awesome, anyone expecting 32 starts/200+ IP from Hill is delusional. Hill performed to expectations, he pitched some amazing games for us- 7 perfect innings, 9 no hit innings, 1.06 ERA in 17 NLCS IP with 11.1k/9, 1.80 ERA in 15 WS IP with 11.4k/9, a 30-16 win loss record with a 3.16 ERA as a Dodger and all this at nearly 40 years old! He was very entertaining to watch with his monster curveball and his acrobatic follow through. I would love to see Hill back on a cheap contract.
One of the most injury-prone pitchers in recent memory coaching one of the most injury-prone starting staffs in the MLB.
Yea I still recall one injury in particular. I was watching the game when he was pitching. Bam! Like shot right at him. Line drive. Hit him square on his pitching elbow. I remember thinking he career must be over. Had to have broken it.
Turns out he was back on the mound several weeks later. Perhaps he should not have been? Maybe the Cubs not being more careful contributed to his demise.
The “big spending Dodgers” will never pay the CBT, not for nobody, not for anything. Might that not hamper their ability to give Prior something more to work with in 2020?
The Dodgers are second all time in most CBT fines paid – six times more than the next closest team.
They are also currently $91 million under the cap.
Literally everything you typed is wrong.
I see, and they’ve exceeded it recently? And they didn’t say in their prospectus to investors that they would not exceed it again? And they don’t have many players about to get a big arbitration salary bump?
Seems you literally don’t know what you are talking about.
The best thing to do when you’re wrong is to move the goalposts.
Which only proves that you don’t know what you are talking about either. The Dodgers policy on the CBT would be blindingly obvious even if we hadn’t seen their investor prospectus, where it was explained in clear English. So no goal posts were moved, only their location was pointed out for those who didn’t notice them before. And ignoring all the big arbitration raises we know are coming, that isn’t wrong?
Sheesh.
You absolutely moved the goalposts. Sheesh.
Why in the world could it possibly matter what the Dodgers spent five years ago? Simple answer, nothing. Not a thing. Anyone who is paying even the slightest bit of attention knows what their spending policy has been for the last two seasons and is now. So you are apparently admitting to not paying even the slightest bit of attention. You are also apparently prepared to ignore the $50m+ in arbitration salaries they will be paying next year.
Why even bother with such a total garbage response?
All I said was that you moved the goalposts, and then I reiterated that you moved the goalposts. Any reading into it beyond that is your thing.
I also, not apparently, but in reality, am saying that I have no comment beyond, you moved the goalposts. There’s nothing else to be gleaned. There is no gotcha. You were wrong and got a gold medal in the 100 meter backpedal.
You know how to makes this easy? Go back and read my first post (hint: it was about the likelihood of the Dodgers spending big on pitching). If you want to respond to that point, be my guest. If you don’t, then don’t. Otherwise you are just being argumentative for the sake of it.
Argumentative? Nah. Your logical fallacy in your first comment is hazy generalization, go ahead and look that up.
The Dodgers are second all time in most CBT fines paid – six times more than the next closest team.
They are also currently $91 million under the cap.
Literally everything you typed is wrong.
I can’t believe that Rich Hill is older than Mark Prior. It seems like ages ago that Mark Prior was a star.
Mark Prior had potential. Shame about all his injuries. I hope he does well as a pitching coach.
And I agree about Rich Hill. I was surprised but it shows that sometimes the decent ones outlive the potential superstars. Strasburg pitched a heck of a postseason and had a great year but with his track record, I wonder if he will be healthy in 2020. I wish no harm on the man, just wondering.
Having one good season & decent postseason doesnt make a player a star.
Example newly retired David Freese had 1 good season & 1 great postseason and he wasnt a star.
Prior was hyped prospect, who’s health compromised his career.
He wasn’t a star to you. The man won’t ever have to pay for a steak dinner in St Louis, but you be you and see what you get for it.
Rash of injuries = Dusty Baker
Prior had injuries. Not sure if you could blame it all on Baker. He had a like drive off his elbow once. Another time he got hurt breaking up a double play got flipped. Landed on his shoulder.
Clearly both were Dusty’s fault.
Guess you can blame Dave Roberts for all of the Dodgers injuries, right?
Hi young talent. Let me show you how to get injured every year and never live up to expectations.
“Hello Internet! I’m bitter!”
Wonder if he’ll use the towel drill?
That’s awesome, glad Prior is still involved in the game. Had no idea he was even coaching until I read this
Does this make his baseball cards worth more $ now ??