As pitching injuries have mounted for the Pirates, moves are being made to bring in some new arms and relocate some others. For the time being, Luis Ortiz has a starting role once again, which prompted the Pirates to recall another reliever for the bullpen.
That reliever is Brent Honeywell Jr., who had his contract selected by the Pirates yesterday.
Justin Bruihl finds himself designated for assignment to make room for Honeywell on the 40-man roster.
It sucks for Bruihl, who left Triple-A Louisville (Cincinnati’s affiliate) after he opted for free agency looking for a big league opportunity. A few quick shuttles between Pittsburgh and Indianapolis and now a DFA later, he’s no better off than he was with the Bats.
But back to Honeywell, who signed with the Pirates back in the winter as a minor league free agent. He has 56.2 innings of major league experience to his name, the vast majority coming with the San Diego Padres last season. In 36 games out west, he had a 2-4 record, 4.05 ERA, 1.371 WHIP, and 2.10 K/BB ratio.
Some of the lack of big league time has come from a series of injury setbacks. Honeywell was essentially cheated out of three years of baseball thanks to having to undergo numerous elbow surgeries. He did not play a single game from 2018 to 2020.
He didn’t make the team out of camp, instead being assigned to Triple-A Indianapolis. He’s stuck it out with the Indians, despite several other players who were in similar positions to him electing free agency. In 39.0 Triple-A innings this season, Honeywell has a 1-3 record, 4.85 ERA, 1.359 WHIP, and 1.94 K/BB ratio.
He has primarily pitched as the Indians closer, with 26 of his 31 appearances coming in the finisher role. His last outing with Indy before his selection saw him pitch a 1-2-3 ninth with a strikeout.
His last ten games (12.0 innings) have seen Honeywell limit opponents to a run or less in all but one of those games. He’s been credited with 4 saves in that time.
The 29-year old’s season stats in Triple-A aren’t all that inspiring, but his ERA is inflated by a few games that just really got out of hand. Four of his outings saw him allow 3+ earned runs, but five of his six other unclean games saw him be charged with only a single earned run.
The other 21 games and 26.0 innings have seen his opposing hitters go scoreless.
His WHIP is encouraging to see, sitting at 1.359. That’s the lowest figure he has posted at any level of play (excluding winter league ball) since his time with Triple-A Durham back in the 2021 season, his first season back post-surgeries.
In his own words, Honeywell has a very versatile arsenal, telling reporters that he has anywhere from 13 to 15 different pitches that he is comfortable throwing, including a screwball.
That screwball he learned from his dad’s cousin, Mike Marshall. The screwball was Marshall’s main pitch when he played in the major leagues, and helped him win the Cy Young award, as a reliever, in 1974.
While I’m not sure how many of those pitches we will see him toss in a Pirates uniform, hopefully we can see him get some whiffs like we saw in spring training.
It should be interesting to see how the Pirates use Honeywell. He reminds me of Ben Heller in the sense that his baseline stats (like ERA) are encouraging, but his underlying stuff looks much better.
Heller, sadly, ended up imploding, so let’s hope for better results from Honeywell.
Fifth Avenue Sports 
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