Rick Honeycutt

Playing career

Honeycutt was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and graduated from Lakeview – Fort Oglethorpe High School in Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia.

Honeycutt played for the Tennessee Volunteers baseball team from 1973–1976, where he was an All-American first baseman-pitcher and won the Southeastern Conference batting title with a .404 mark. He played summer ball in Liberal, Kansas, in the Jayhawk League, for Bob Cerv. A teammate there, who played SS, was Condredge Holloway, a fellow U. of Tennessee baseball and football star.

Honeycutt was originally drafted in the 17th round of the 1976 draft by the Pittsburgh Pirates. After  1 ¹⁄₂ seasons in their minor league system, the Pirates traded him to the Seattle Mariners in August 1977 to complete an earlier trade for Dave Pagan.

He made his major league debut on August 24, 1977 against the Toronto Blue Jays. He pitched two innings of relief, struck out 3, allowed 2 hits and no runs. His first start was against the New York Yankees on August 31. He pitched 7.1 innings in that start, allowing 3 runs. He finished the season 0-1, but got his first victory in his first start the following year, beating the Minnesota Twins on April 7, 1978.

He matured into a control pitcher, being selected to the 1980 All-Star Game. While he was pitching on September 30, 1980, he was caught using a thumbtack to illegally cut the ball. He was ejected and suspended for 10 games. Following the 1980 season, he was traded with Larry Cox, Willie Horton, Mario Mendoza and Leon Roberts to the Texas Rangers for Brian Allard, Rick Auerbach, Ken Clay, Jerry Gleaton and Richie Zisk. In 1983, Honeycutt represented the Rangers in the All-Star Game. On August 19, 1983, Honeycutt was traded from the Rangers to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Dave Stewart and Ricky Wright. Honeycutt led the American League in ERA in 1983 with 2.42, although he was traded to the Dodgers late in the season.

In 1987, Honeycutt was traded to the Oakland Athletics for a player to be named later, who would be Tim Belcher. Converted from a starting pitcher to relief in 1988 by Oakland, he became a set-up man to Dennis Eckersley, posting a series of sub-3.7 ERAs from 1988 through 1993. He was the oldest major league player in both 1996 and 1997.

He made 268 starts and 529 relief appearances in his career, logging 2,160 innings pitched and compiling 109 wins and 38 saves.

Coaching career

Following his playing career, Honeycutt spent a year coaching his kids' teams before joining the Dodgers as their minor league pitching coordinator.

Honeycutt joined the Dodgers coaching staff as pitching coach for the 2006 season. He has also launched a sporting goods and apparel business in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Honeycutt and Mariano Duncan were the only holdovers from Grady Little's 2007 coaching staff to return on new Dodgers' manager Joe Torre's 2008 coaching staff. Honeycutt also remained as pitching coach when Don Mattingly replaced Torre after the 2010 season. When Mattingly left the team after the 2015 season, Honeycutt was the only coach to remain on the staff for new manager Dave Roberts.