The Padres are taking another swing on Brent Honeywell Jr., signing the 31-year-old right-hander to a minor league contract that figures to route him to Triple-A El Paso. It's not a splashy deadline addition, but it's the kind of low-cost depth move front offices make every August, and Honeywell's résumé makes this one worth a second look.
This is actually Honeywell's second go-round in San Diego. He first signed with the Padres back in January 2023 on a split major-minor deal, but that stint ended with a DFA later that year after a 4.05 ERA over 46.2 innings. He bounced from there to the Dodgers organization in July 2024, where he found his best form yet, posting a 2.62 ERA in 34.1 innings and picking up a World Series ring as part of LA's championship bullpen.
Then the wheels came off, career-wise. Honeywell went completely unsigned through all of 2025 before latching on with the San Francisco Giants in February on another minor league flier — only to get released before the season even started. That's the version of Honeywell the Padres are betting on now: talented, well-traveled, and looking for stability more than a paycheck.
Longtime baseball fans will remember Honeywell as one of the sport's most electric pitching prospects a decade ago, a Tampa Bay Rays farmhand famous for a five-pitch mix that included an honest-to-god screwball — a pitch so rare from a right-hander it left hitters looking silly in the minors. But his career has been defined just as much by his elbow as his arsenal; a torn UCL forced Tommy John surgery back in 2018, and it was one of four operations that delayed his MLB debut for years before he finally got there with the Rays in 2021.
For a Padres organization known under president of baseball operations A.J. Preller for scooping up reclamation projects, adding a reliever who's already tasted a title but can't stay on a 26-man roster fits the pattern. There's no guarantee Honeywell ever pitches an inning for San Diego at the big-league level again, but if he sharpens up in El Paso, don't be shocked if he's a September call-up name to remember.