5:00pm: The deal does not include an invite to big league spring training, per Justice delos Santos of the Mercury News.
1:05pm: The Giants are going to sign right-hander Brent Honeywell Jr. to a minor league contract, reports Chris Cotillo of MassLive. Presumably, the righty will be invited to big league camp in spring training.
Honeywell, 31 next month, didn’t pitch anywhere in 2025. He was non-tendered by the Dodgers after the 2024 season and didn’t find a landing spot after that. What he can provide after sitting out an entire season is unknown but there’s little harm for the Giants in giving him a non-roster pact and then taking a look at him in some spring appearances.
The righty’s trajectory has been a uniquely challenging one. He was a top 100 prospect about a decade ago before an awful series of injury setbacks sent him off course. He required Tommy John surgery in 2018, suffered an elbow fracture in 2019, required nerve decompression surgery in 2020 and then suffered an olecranon stress reaction in his elbow in 2022.
By the end of the 2022 season, he had just three major league appearances under his belt. He stayed healthy enough in 2023 to pitch 52 1/3 innings between the Padres and White Sox. His 4.82 earned run average was somewhat serviceable but he was passed through outright waivers in August of that year.
He settled for a minor league deal with the Pirates going into 2024. He was on their roster for a few days in July before going to the Dodgers via waivers. The Dodgers passed him through waivers again in August but selected him back to the roster a little over a week later, so he was on their roster for most of the second half.
He finished the year with a 2.63 ERA, though in fairly lucky fashion. His 7.4% walk rate was solid and his 42.2% grounder rate around average but he only struck out 12.1% of batters faced, barely half of league par. He got some help from a .252 batting average on balls in play and 80% strand rate. Measures like his 4.28 FIP and flat 5.00 SIERA feel he would have fared far worse with neutral treatment from the baseball gods. He got to make three postseason appearances for the Dodgers as their mop-up guy when losing, allowing nine earned runs in 8 2/3 innings.
Honeywell got himself a ring for that effort but was not tendered a contract for 2025 and ended up sitting out the campaign. The Giants go into 2026 with their bullpen seeming weaker than last year. They traded Camilo Doval and Tyler Rogers at last year’s deadline, then lost Randy Rodríguez to Tommy John surgery.
Their approach to rebuilding the relief group has been to take low-cost fliers on reclamation projects. They signed Jason Foley, Rowan Wick and Sam Hentges but will likely start the season with all three on the injured list. Gregory Santos and Michael Fulmer were signed to minor league deals after a couple of injury-marred seasons.
Now Honeywell jumps into the mix as some extra non-roster depth. If he is able to secure a roster spot, he is out of options but has less than three years of club control, meaning he could theoretically be retained for future seasons via arbitration. He’ll have to earn a chance and make the most of it before that becomes any kind of realistic consideration.
Photo courtesy of David Frerker, Imagn Images
I remember when this kid was in the minors for the Rays and he complained about Chris Archer’s performance. Christ, I’m old.
It was only 10 years ago…
I was today’s years old when I heard this story.
It’s funny watching those where are they now videos. Top 10 2012 prospects, had like 2 guys still playing
oh my god thank you so much for bringing this to my attention, i take it back! i take it ALL BACK!!!!
I was a working adult when Honeywell was born. Got my first job that week as a matter of fact. You are not old, I am.
I am younger than Brent Honeywell.
I figured. I assumed you were a teen or so.
Well, I still have grandparents, so yeah…
“I assumed you were a teen or so.” Close enough.
I am 49 and still have a living grandfather, so that doesn’t tell age at all.
I’m 46 and I haven’t had grandparents for 30 years.
I’m old enough to be Honeywell’s dad….
I’m so old that in school we didn’t have history.
Last time I heard that I fell off my dinosaur laughing.
I’m so old I have Brent Honeywell, Sr.’s rookie card.
This organization is baffling. I get it, he’s a low-cost flier, etc., but their moves (or lack thereof) don’t make much sense.
I wish them the best of luck assembling a championship roster with Devers and Arraez on it.
Devers > Durbin
It makes sense to put Devers on a team when trying to assemble a championship roster since Devers already has a WS ring.
That is why they signed Honeywell – he comes into ST sporting that 2024 WS ring so, all is good.
Yes, a 3X batting champion and a player with MVP votes across five seasons are definitely not guys you’d want when assembling a championship roster.
Devers looks great. Saw a YouTube shorts fan thing last week. Rocking up to Spring with a defined jawline ! Bodes well. Good work, Raffy !
Nice, this bothers you? That’s baffling
Who said I was bothered?
You are a fan. It’s not going to make sense. The important thing is that it makes sense inside the org.
Decent pickup although I wonder if he had some sort of injury last year I find it hard to believe he didn’t play anywhere and was healthy considering his decent results in 2024.
Same here. If he were healthy, it looks like some team needing pitching (Colorado?) would have signed him last season.
It’s a depth piece and never likely to see the Majors. Nothing to get twisted about.
Pete – if he is healthy, he will see the majors with SF.
Pete
He is likely to see the majors but not an extended stay.
with Arraez on the infield they will need to see an uptick in his K rate.
Arraez 2-3 today, I saw his name in the boxscore and thought to myself that there is a really strong possibility that Luis Arraez has a great season.
I have no clue what teams were thinking in regards to Arraez. I think he is going to have a 200 hits this season.
They were thinking he’s only good at batting average and nothing else. And they were right.
This move might end Honeywell
I get it, makes sense, signing a bunch of flyers in the hopes they stick, stop gaps until the next wave of arms get closer and fall backs if the current crop don’t pan out. Keep em coming
This guy looks just like Jake from Jomboy Media.
37 innings of luck with a 2 in LA. Wow
2014 was a weird draft. The top 2 players picked in the first round never played in the major leagues and the second round was a complete bust with Alex Verdugo being the only player with over a 7.5 lifetime bWAR.
And people still cry over a 17 y old top prospect being traded for a proven mlb player to help try to win a now championship!
Mitch Keller and Spencer Turnbull still have a chance to jump up with and even past Verdugo. But yeah definitely a rough class.
Preparing myself for 40 full podcast minutes from Dallas Braden about this momentous signing
Pitching in the playoffs to nada is wild. This guy has had the ultimate roller coaster career.
Giants look really good so far in spring. Playing a crisp brand of baseball.
Blade Tidwell for closer? Love his entrance music: the techno track from the “blood rave” scene from Blade. So hilariously appropriate.
Giants are going to be trouble for teams this year. 85 wins and a playoff appearance. Hey, it’s three games into the Cactus League. Allow a lifelong baseball fan some optimism. Hope springs eternal. Go Giants!
I think I’ve got you beat, this will be my 64th season rooting for the
SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS.
Amazing! My grandfather was a first generation American. His family immigrated to NYC from Naples, and he began rooting for the New York Giants in 1929. This legacy was passed onto my mom and her siblings, and then to me and my cousins. As life worked out, they even followed the team to SF. So you could say I was born into a die-hard Giants family (also Niners and Warriors).
As a young kid I went to ball games and rooted for the Giants. My aunt was an usherette at Candlestick Park. I started watching most of their contests and really paying attention to the team around 1982. In 1986 I became obsessed with Will Clark and Robbie Thompson and considered myself a “hardcore fan.” So it’s been about 50 years for me.
I am a Honeywell fan
As a 7 year the boys club took us to the polo grounds in 1954. Being young and running wild in the stands the adults told us to watch the kid in center field as someday he will be great. I became a fan of Willie and the Giants and even followed them to California in 1960 as our family moved west. Still a fan and watch them everyday.
Wish I could go back in time to visit the Polo Grounds. That would have been awesome,
He had good minor league numbers, great, even before he got injured and has never been the same since. Either way, he took one on the chin for the Dodgers in game 4 of the 2024 World Series when the Dodgers just needed innings eaten in a loss. Glad he had a championship ring. He earned it