Vance Honeycutt is starting to look like the player the Orioles believed they were getting when they used the 22nd overall pick on him in the 2024 MLB Draft.
That belief was built on talent. Honeycutt had as much athletic ability as anyone in that draft class, and Baltimore saw him as a strong fit alongside other top prospects such as Ike Irish.
But the path from draft pick to prospect worth watching has not been smooth. It has taken a lot of work to get here, and even now, his turnaround is still in the early stages.
In the Arizona Fall League, though, there are signs that something is clicking. Playing for the Peoria Javelinas, the 23-year-old outfielder unloaded a home run on October 5 that came off the bat at 106.6 mph. He also went 2-for-4 in the game, drove in two runs and added a stolen base.
“Just trying to help the team win. There's other ways to do that, outside of just in the box,” Honeycutt said after the game. “Working on those things in practice and during the games is beneficial, because it’s more than just what shows up in the box score that’s important.”
That performance came in just his second AFL game, but it already looked like more than a small blip. After two seasons that sent his stock sliding, Honeycutt is finally giving scouts a reason to take another look.
The last two years in the minors had pushed him into real danger of becoming a cautionary tale. In his first full season in Baltimore’s system, Honeycutt posted a brutal .171/.284/.275 line in 374 at-bats with the Aberdeen IronBirds in High-A. He finished that season with 23 extra-base hits in 2025, dropped out of MLB Pipeline’s Top 30 prospects, and went from the Orioles’ fifth-best prospect entering the year to an afterthought.
The strikeouts told an even harsher story. Honeycutt struck out 178 times last season, which was nearly a 50 percent strikeout rate. He wasn’t just failing to do damage; he was having a hard time putting the bat on the ball at all.
The struggles carried into 2026, when he was again overmatched in High-A. With the Frederick Keys, he struck out 110 times in 220 at-bats and produced a .644 OPS in 64 games. The numbers were rough enough that people were openly asking what had gone wrong.
Then came the move to Double-A Chesapeake in mid-August, and that changed the conversation. Honeycutt posted a .997 OPS in 20 games there and cut his strikeout rate in half. That stretch may have done more than salvage a season - it may have kept his career moving in the right direction.
Now he’s carrying that momentum into the AFL, where he’s facing some of the best prospects in baseball. The Orioles are hoping the progress holds into 2027, and Honeycutt isn’t treating any of it as a finish line.
“Continuing to do reps in practice, during the day, before the game,” added Honeycutt. “Really honing in on it, not trying to take a day off, understanding that even if you are good out there, you can always get better.”
Where he opens the 2027 season is still unknown. But after everything he’s been through, Honeycutt is at least back on the path the Orioles imagined when they drafted him: a talented, explosive player with a chance to become something more.
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