The Padres and right-hander Brent Honeywell are in agreement on a major league deal, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. It’s a split deal that will pay him $725K in the majors and $200K in the minors. The Padres subsequently announced the signing.
Honeywell, 28 in March, was selected by the Rays with the 72nd overall pick in the 2014 draft. His strong performance in the lower levels of the minor leagues allowed him to quickly shoot up prospect rankings. Baseball America had him on their top 100 list in five straight years starting in 2016.
Unfortunately, the reason that Honeywell stayed on there so long is that a laundry list of injuries prevented him from exhausting his prospect status. He required Tommy John surgery early in 2018, which wiped out that season. In June of 2019, he fractured a bone in his right elbow while working his way back to the mound, knocking him out of action for a second straight year. In May of 2020, while the pandemic had put the season on pause, he underwent a decompression procedure on his right ulnar nerve. That eventually made it three consecutive campaigns without Honeywell taking the mound in an official game of any kind.
In 2021, he finally was healthy enough to get back into action, making his MLB debut for the Rays. They only let him throw 4 1/3 innings at the big league level, however, leaving him in Triple-A most of the year. He threw 81 2/3 frames there with a 3.97 ERA, 20% strikeout rate and 7.2% walk rate. Those were decent numbers, but considering he missed three whole seasons prior to that, it would be hard to characterize it as anything but a very encouraging return.
The Rays traded Honeywell to the A’s in November, with Oakland surely hoping that better days were ahead with the injuries in the rearview mirror. Unfortunately, he was diagnosed with an olecranon stress reaction in his throwing elbow in March. He was shut down at that time and then was placed on the 60-day injured list when the season began. He started a rehab assignment in August but the club outrighted him off their 40-man roster in September. He continued pitching in the farm system of the A’s, finishing the year with a 7.08 ERA over 20 1/3 innings.
He reached free agency at the end of the year and has been pitching for the Leones del Escogido of the Dominican Winter League. He’s made seven appearances so far, including six starts, posting a 0.96 ERA over 28 innings. That’s evidently been enough to convince the Padres that Honeywell is worth a roster spot, as they have added Honeywell to the 40-man. Financially, there’s little risk, since Honeywell’s salary will be just barely above the $720K league minimum. The fact that it’s a split deal suggests that the Padres aren’t fully committed to Honeywell holding onto that spot, which is a fairly logical position given his lengthy injury history. However, he’s out of options, meaning that they would have to pass him through waivers before sending him to the minor leagues.
It’s unclear if the Padres intend to deploy Honeywell as a starter or a reliever, but they’ve shown a broadly flexible approach in that department when it comes to building out their pitching staff. The rotation is headlined by three locks in Joe Musgrove, Yu Darvish and Blake Snell, but who slots in behind them is less certain. Nick Martinez and Seth Lugo are candidates for a couple of spots, but both of them also have experience as relievers. Martinez started 2022 in the rotation but was eventually moved to the bullpen and had better results there. Lugo has just 38 career starts at the big league level but has an extensive repertoire of pitches that could allow him to move to a starting role.
Honeywell is currently acting as a starter in winter ball but hasn’t logged 100 innings in a season since 2017, before his lengthy absence. Counting on him for anything resembling a full starter’s workload would certainly be risky, but he’s just one of a handful of options for the Friars. In addition to Martinez and Lugo, they also have prospects Adrian Morejon, Jay Groome, Ryan Weathers and others on the 40-man roster. For a minimal financial investment, the Padres have thrown Honeywell into the mix and will see if he they can be the ones to benefit from his long-awaited breakout. If that comes to fruition, Honeywell has less than a year of service time and can be retained by the club for the foreseeable future.
They’re paying him 725 million? He must be pretty good.
$725 million? That is a huge contract for such an injury risk.
To be honest I wish the jays would have taken a shot on him and put him in rotation. His prior potential alone should give him priority over junk like berrios and kikuchi.
You want them to not pitch Berrios a year after they signed him for 7 years? Fan really do have no clue.
Lol…he would be a great lottery ticket though. Let’s hope Pearson fills a key role, either as a relief pitcher or swing man. They need an X factor.
Im sorry 725? that must be some star ive never heard of?
Why?
6 great starts (0.96 ERA) in DOWL, arm depth at AAA with Options, finally looks healthy, split deal… why not?
He is out of options or the A’s would have kept him.
Thank you for the correction coffinnail, we seemed to have lost count with the injuries and all. Still, technically a very talented rookie hose. I like it.
Low risk. Get over yourself
Was enamored by him as a Ray’s prospect years ago.
For good reason. Didn’t he get hurt? He was one of the top pitching prospects in the Not-too-distant past.
He tried throwing the screwball too much. There’s a reason no one throws is.
True. Crazy that he’s already 28 though
In 2017 I saw Honeywell out-pitch a fairly-loaded Lehigh Valley team when he pitched for the Durham Bulls. LV had quality prospects (at the time) Hoskins, J.P. Crawford, Alfaro, and Dylan Cozens (Kingery had the night off). This was just before Hoskins was called up and teed off on NL pitching for a month. Pitching for LV was Ben Lively, who was a decent prospect as well. Honeywell didn’t dominate against that lineup, but he got them out in clutch situations and got the victory. I was thinking that the Rays definitely had a 2 or 3 starter on their hands at the very least. It sucks when a talented athlete’s career get diverted by injuries.
You all can’t read…it clearly says $725K. “K”
At least now it does…lol
Originally it said 725MM
I know, man. I was both kidding with you guys and jumping the inevitable person who doesn’t realize the author’s edit button works too…..
Probably a bad joke, like most of mine. They tend to fall into dad joke territory. I blame tiny kids for that.
In today’s economy that’s a steal
725MM is more entertaining
Well, Angel Hernandez’s Eyesight kicked it all off, so par for the course?
And if anyone would give Honeywell 725MM, well, it’d probably be us or Uncle Stevie.
He’ll also take care of the Petco Park alarm system
Brewers could use him then — crazy story of a fan that attended a Brewers DH, consuming 10 beers at the game, passed out outside the stadium after the game, woke up and pulled on a locked door until it opened, got into the clubhouse and stole just about everything he came across including Craig Counsell’s jersey, etc. https://www.jsonline.com/story/sports/2023/01/06/milwaukee-man-admits-to-stealing-items-from-brewers-clubhouse-american-family-field/69781708007/
Poor guy has already had so many breakdowns before the career ever got untracked that it is hard to believe that he will ever be healthy.
And if he somehow manages to stay on the mound for a period of time, they will probably end up needing to replace his thermostat anyway…
Fortunately Jose Castillo’s shrink is in town
As always, we await developments.
In the meantime, let’s do lots of historical sleuthing.
He threw very well this winter
$725MM
Brent, being very low-key gets biggest contract in MLB history. Very impressive indeed.
Depth is good.
Most people prefer life.
That made me lol – thank you
hope he can make that work. Always been a big fan of the kid, just could never stay healthy. Go get ’em, Honey!
Honeywell will love the NL West. Solid quad A guy, great Durham Bulls numbers and performance (2017 triple A champions I believe)
Sorry Darragh…..now you know that you can never have a typo in your piece. The typo police are brutal here.
Apparently, he’s throwing very well in the Dominican Winter League.
That is a wild signing. He was one a top prospect that has never panned out.
Just goes to show they are watching winter league ball and if you do well there, you might get signed like Honeywell.
Color me intrigued but cautiously optimistic. Rays/A’s arms are always worth a gamble. That said, injury history is a concern. Padres really need another veteran arm, stretched out and ready for a full seasons workload. Too many question marks in regards to the 4th and 5th spots. No LF and need more depth at 1b/dh. Started the off season with a bang but seem to be sputtering a bit now.
I think we’re about done roster-wise, but do Voit, Profar or Mancini move the needle any? Honeywell signing tells me that we’re out on Cueto or Wacha. Never count out AJ for a trade upgrade, too. Good times
I’d like a professional hitter- Gurriel ?Pollack? Hope we are not out on Cueto or Wacha but you’re probably right. Hoping AJ’s KBO pitching scouting magic continues…
I was hoping we would sign a professional hitter like Pollock or Gurriel out of what’s left of the free agents-
I hope we are not out in Cueto or Wacha but if so let’s hope that Preller’s Asian scouts have done some good work like they had with Suarez and Martinez with the addition of Font
Roster is currently full, but Sullivan, Batten and Dixon could be easily taken off the roster to open up a few spots. On the pitching side, there is upside or decent track records for everyone except for Avila, Knehr, Poppen and Weathers. Not sure what Niebla can get out of those 4, but Preller & Co. have 7 possible roster spots available as far as I can see, one of those going to Tatis on April 20th.
I am sure the Padres aren’t done tweaking this roster.
How did Jose Lopez end up on 40 man?
Rule 5 selection. From what I have read on him, if he can cut down the walks, he could be a very useful bullpen piece. Hopefully Niebla can help him out.
thanks beersy! I missed that acquisition. They must have a lot of confidence in his abilities given he hasn’t yet pitched in the MLs. I see he was lights out in minors last year.
From the articles it looks like the Padres will have Soto in LF, Grisham in CF, and Tatis in RF.
Reminds me of Ryan Anderson of the M’s back in the late 90’s. He was supposed to be the next Randy Johnson, then he messed his arm up and never threw a Major League pitch.
Does he have a baseball card? His rookie card would be a steal.
Honeywell has a lot of fans. I own one of them. Keeps my bedroom nice and cool.
The Padres. LOL!
Padres made a much wiser pitching transaction than the Dodgers did today.