Tampa Bay Rays: Brent Honeywell throwing baseballs at the “Trop”

The Tampa Bay Rays’ long-hyped pitching prospect is back on the field and throwing a baseball.

The Tampa Bay Rays’ Brent Honeywell was ranked as the 11th best prospect heading into the 2018 season by Baseball Prospectus.

Brent Honeywell was working his way back from a Tommy John surgery that cost him the entire 2018 season when in April of last year he suffered another setback. Honeywell fractured a bone in his elbow on Saturday, June 8th of 2019.

The injury cost him the remainder of season.

Despite finishing his Tommy John rehab, other setbacks have prevented Honeywell from pitching since 2017.

For his minor league career, Honeywell has compiled the following stats:

• 79 Games
• 416 Innings Pitched
• 458 Strikeouts
• 2.88 ERA
• 31 Wins
• 19 Losses
• 1.08 WHIP
• 2.0 BB9
• 0.6 HR9
• 9.9 SO9

Despite missing the previous two seasons to injuries, Honeywell still finds himself ranked as the Rays ninth-best prospect heading into 2020 by Baseball Prospectus.

He’s obviously no longer a top prospect in the entire league due to the myriad of injuries he’s worked through the past couple of seasons. Additionally, the Rays’ farm system is so deep that ninth is quite a vote of confidence in his abilities.

Honeywell is a candidate to potentially make an impact in 2020 if his arm looks to be healthy. He is on the verge of turning 25 in March and has proven himself worthy of the Majors after dominating in all levels of the minors and landing in Baseball Prospectus’ top 25 prospect rankings between 2017-2019.

The Tampa Bay Rays have a plethora of starting pitchers available for the rotation this season. Blake Snell returns as the AL Cy Young award winner from two years ago and Charlie Morton hopes to provide a worthy sequel to worthy 2019 Tampa Bay Rays’ origin story. Morton finished third in Cy Young voting last season.

Beyond the top three starting pitchers, the Rays (unlike recent years) have options.

Tyler Glasnow burst on to the scene with a 1.78 ERA in 12 starts and looks to contend for the award in 2020.

Many thought that Honeywell would be in the same conversation by now. Hopefully, he’s passed the injuries and ready to force his way onto the roster in 2020.

It looks like his arm is in good health as he was spotted throwing at Tropicana Field on Saturday.

Could we see Honeywell following in Snell’s and Glasnow’s footsteps in 2020? Either way, it’s a great thing to see him on the field throwing and healthy again.