As expected, there have been a variety of minor inter-team moves around baseball tied to today’s roster protection deadline (the Cubs protected Nelson Velazquez and Ethan Roberts). Most are fringe moves you wouldn’t pay a ton of attention to unless they directly impacted the Cubs.
There has been one pretty interesting one, though: the Rays have sent pitcher Brent Honeywell to the A’s, who paid cash.
No A’s players are headed to Tampa Bay in the trade, I’m told. Just cash. https://t.co/AtrH9kNIWb
— Shayna Rubin (@ShaynaRubin) November 19, 2021
Honeywell, now 26, is a long-time well-known prospecting name, equally notable for the hype that accompanied his rise with Tampa Bay, as for the series of injuries and surgeries that kept knocking him down. I mean, the guy was a top 100 prospect FIVE STRAIGHT YEARS from 2016 to 2020 thanks to that unique combination of talent and injuries.
Honeywell was solid, but unspectacular, at Triple-A in 2021, his first competitive action since 2017. It’s impressive how he’s kept going, to be honest.
This is basically the A’s paying a little extra cash to jump the waiver line and claim Honeywell, who obviously wasn’t going to stick on the Rays’ 40-man either way. He’s out of options, so he’ll have to make the A’s out of Spring Training or hit waivers. I expect the money going to the Rays was modest, but it seems like a worthwhile shot for the equally cost-conscious A’s, who might have a lot of rotation spots suddenly open up over the course of the winter.