2024 review: Brent Honeywell

12/26/2024 01:03 PM

The screwballer, now-journeyman reliever, became a key cog of the dogs of the Dodgers' bullpen and the unsung hero of the Dodgers' postseason, beloved by fans and his teammates.

Brent Honeywell Jr. had the unlikeliest season for a Dodger in recent memory.

He was supposed to be a spare part who showed up in Detroit, did his part, and then was never heard of again until the end-of-year essays, like Zach Logue or Dinelson Lamet.

Obviously, things went differently for Honeywell in 2024.

When the Dodgers agreed to commit $1.4 billion in player salaries before the 2024 season, there was no conceivable universe in which the Dodgers conceived that Honeywell would be a critical component at the start of the year.

If someone came to you on December 26, 2023, and said the exemplar of the grit that would catapult the Dodgers to their second title in four years, you would likely look at them as if they had gone mad.

We would reflexively dismiss the story as fiction, as cliched. Yet we all watched it happen.

By his own admission, Honeywell is not the best reliever in the Dodgers bullpen. He's a guy who showed up, did what was asked of him, did his best, and was deeply respected by the fans and the team for his effort and results.

Before coming to the Dodgers, Honeywell was the definition of a journeyman, originally drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays organization, and was a part of the taxi squad for the 2020 World Series team, pitching live batting practice after enduring multiple injuries.

After bouncing around to several organizations since departing Tampa, Honeywell started the year with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He made 31 relief appearances with Triple-A Indianapolis, where he pitched 39 innings with a 4.85 ERA. He appeared in two games with the Pirates, pitching 3⅓ innings and surrendering just one run, before getting designated for assignment on July 12.

To paraphrase Graham Green, you cannot conceive, nor can I, the appalling strangeness of the mercy of a second chance. Even Young Master Honeywell admitted that the Dodgers initially signed him to "fall on a grenade in Detroit" in remarks to Mookie Betts and company after the Dodgers' World Series parade.

I vividly remember seeing most of Honeywell's three-inning Dodger debut. Security into Comerica Park dramatically increased how long it took to get into the ballpark, with lines extending about a block from the stadium in a show of force that just accomplished, making going to the ballpark harder and slower.

When I finally reached my seat with food in hand, I missed a third of Honeywell's opener. I had two thoughts from this debut: first, is that pitch an actual screwball, and second, I wondered about the sanity of wearing a turtleneck in the sweltering heat.

When I observed Honeywell in 2024, apart from his grit, the main thing that stood out was his complete comfort in his own skin, based on his mannerisms, hairstyle, and attire. Although he had four arm surgeries in five years, you would never know the struggles that he had to overcome to get to this point just by looking at him.

With his pitch mix of four-seam fastball, screwball (that he learned from his cousin, the late Dr. Iron Mike Marshall), and slider, after his effective opener, he appeared in ten games for the Dodgers, in middle-to-late relief. Honeywell took to the Dodgers like a fish to water.

He pitched 20⅓ innings with a 0-1 record and his first career save against the San Francisco Giants. During this stretch, he had a 2.21 ERA and 4.79 FIP. He had 12 strikeouts against four walks, two hit batters, and three home runs allowed. Honeywell also had his longest outings out of the regular season in a week span against the San Diego Padres (three innings, 56 pitches) and the Philadelphia Phillies (3⅔ innings, 67 pitches).

On August 18, five weeks after his Dodger debut, the Dodgers designated Honeywell for assignment in a roster crunch as the Dodgers desperately juggled available arms to cover injury and ineffectiveness.

Honeywell cleared waivers and accepted the assignment to Triple-A Oklahoma City. He had two scoreless outings over four innings of work. On August 31, the Dodgers brought Honeywell back for the rest of the regular season.

He appeared in eight games, mostly in middle-to-late relief. He pitched in 14 innings with a 1-0 record and 3.21 ERA. For the regular year, as a Dodger, hitters had a slash line of .244/.303/.378 against Honeywell, which is solid for a non-leverage arm.

Where Honeywell's season went from solid to legendary was the postseason run. While he was left off the National League Division Series roster against the San Diego Padres, instead of pouting, Honeywell threw live batting practice to Mookie Betts and Chris Taylor, urging them to hit his fastball as far as they could.

But that selfless act pales compared to what Honeywell did in the National League Championship Series against the New York Mets. Dave Roberts and the Dodgers lacked enough starting pitching this postseason run. The Dodgers had to use lower-leverage arms like Landon Knack, Ben Casparius, and Honeywell to compensate.

The gambit worked spectacularly. Honeywell pitched 7⅔ innings in the NLCS, including 4⅔ innings in Game 5. The effort helped the Dodgers win the NLCS in six games, which Max Muncy and the rest of the team credited to Honeywell.

The same strategy was used against the New York Yankees in the World Series. In Game 4, Honeywell and company were tasked with keeping the game close so that the Dodgers could sweep. It did not work for Game 4, as the Yankees tagged Honeywell for five runs in a record 50-pitch inning in the lone Yankees win.

However, the strategy allowed all leverage arms, except Daniel Hudson, to be used (and then some) in Game 5, which was necessary given how ineffective starter Jack Flaherty was.

That sentence is what made pitchers like Honeywell special in the 2024 bullpen. A lesser team would have imploded long before this moment. The 2024 title required an "all hands on deck" effort, and no one personified that effort more than Number 40 — the screwballer Brent Honeywell Jr.

Sadly, all stories have to end.

On November 22, the Dodgers non-tendered Honeywell, making him a free agent. It seemed fitting that with the death of Fernando Valenzuela, the Dodgers had a screwballer on the roster for this postseason run. If this World Series was the last hurrah for Honeywell in a Dodger uniform, like being asked to be the fifth Beatle (even temporarily), it was one hell of a ride for Honeywell that had to be seen to be believed.

2024 particulars

Age: 29

Stats: 1-1, 1 SV, 2.62 ERA, 4.27 FIP, 34⅓ IP, 9 BB, 17 K, 0.5 rWAR, 0.1 fWAR

Salary: $1.25 million (of which the Dodgers were responsible for $456,989)

Game of the year

As Honeywell used to be a starting pitcher, picking his Dodger debut against the Tigers in Detroit is tempting. That fact aside, Honeywell's Game of the Year is NLCS Game 5 on October 18. While Honeywell plunk a record three batters, his usage set up the Dodgers brilliantly to clinch a trip to the Fall Classic. After the Dodgers clinched the following game, Honeywell spoke to Kristen Watson about his efforts.

Roster status

Honeywell is a free agent.