The Dodgers have chosen the contract of right-hander Brent Honeywell, in line with a crew announcement. Honeywell will take the energetic roster spot of right-hander Joe Kelly, who the membership has positioned on the 15-day Injured Checklist resulting from proper shoulder irritation. A corresponding 40-man roster transfer was not wanted to accommodate Honeywell, who will take the spot vacated by veteran outfielder Jason Heyward final week. The Dodgers have additionally formally introduced the location of veteran lefty Clayton Kershaw on the IL that was reported earlier this night.
Honeywell, 29, returns to the massive league Dodgers for a second stint after being designated for project by the membership simply two weeks in the past. As soon as a consensus top-15 prospect within the sport with the Rays, Honeywell has confronted quite a few injury-related struggles all through his profession that induced him to overlook three full seasons of motion from 2018 to 2020 earlier than being restricted to simply 103 1/3 innings of labor throughout the 2021 and ’22 seasons.
These lengthy layoffs price him a number of key years of growth and robbed him of his potential to begin, however he re-emerged as an enormous league reliever with the Padres final season. He posted respectable center aid numbers in San Diego earlier than being squeezed off the roster and ending up with the White Sox, with whom he was shelled for seven runs in 5 2/3 innings down the stretch. That disastrous finish to 2023 price Honeywell his roster spot in Chicago, however he managed to discover a minor league cope with the Pirates over the winter and made his approach to the majors in July.
In 23 2/3 innings of labor with the Pirates and Dodgers this season, Honeywell has posted robust outcomes regardless of lackluster peripherals. His 2.28 ERA is nothing wanting glorious, however the truth that he’s managing to forestall runs to that diploma regardless of a microscopic 13.8% strikeout price seems prone to be unsustainable, significantly if his whopping 89.6% strand price regresses to a extra typical determine. Even so, Honeywell figures to be as stable a wager as any to eat innings in a beleaguered Dodgers bullpen that was pressured to make use of seven relievers after Kershaw departed within the second inning of final night time’s recreation resulting from damage.
Honeywell might be taking the roster spot of a type of seven relievers, as Kelly is headed to the IL with a bout of shoulder irritation. The 38-year-old hurler has been struggling mightily for the previous month as he’s posted a 7.71 ERA with a paltry 18.2% strikeout price and a hefty 13.6% stroll price. Final night time’s outing was significantly troublesome for the veteran as he surrendered two runs on three hits and two walks in 1 2/3 innings of labor whereas hanging out only one and hitting two batters.
Kelly’s brutal outcomes over the previous month have induced his season numbers to go from stable to nicely under common, as he entered August with a 3.93 ERA and a sterling 2.41 FIP. These numbers now sit at 5.20 and 4.83, respectively. It’s unclear how lengthy Kelly is anticipated to be out of motion, however with only a month left within the common season it’s doable the right-hander received’t be wholesome sufficient to return earlier than then. Kelly might hypothetically return sooner or later within the postseason even when he isn’t in a position to make it again earlier than the top of the common season, although given his deep struggles of late it’s unclear how strongly he would issue into L.A.’s postseason plans even when wholesome.
