The steady voice of Rick Honeycutt
From the pages of Dodger Insider magazine …
By Cary Osborne
Rick Honeycutt had been the Dodger minor league pitching coordinator from 2002 to 2005, but he was only two years into the job as the team’s Major League pitching coach when the Dodgers hired Joe Torre to manage the team.
Changes would be coming — namely Larry Bowa as the new third base coach and Bob Schaefer as bench coach — and it was reasonable to wonder if a new pitching coach would soon be on the scene as well.
But after flying to New York to meet with Torre, Honeycutt erased whatever doubts the future Hall of Fame manager might have had. Honeycutt’s consistent, influential voice in the organization was secure.
To this day, that voice hasn’t changed. Even when the Dodgers hired Dave Roberts on November 23 to become their manager, and later when the organization revamped the coaching staff, Honeycutt was the only Dodger dugout coach from 2015 who remained.
And since Honeycutt took over the job from Jim Colborn in 2006, Dodger pitchers rank first in the Major Leagues in such statistics as ERA, WHIP, strikeouts, strikeouts-to-walk ratio, fielding-independent pitching and all opponents’ slash-line numbers.
Honeycutt was one of only five big league pitching coaches with 10 consecutive years of service to one team in 2015 — the others being San Francisco’s Dave Righetti (16 seasons), the Chicago White Sox’s Don Cooper (14), San Diego’s Darren Balsley (13) and Atlanta’s Roger McDowell (10).
‘“He does such a great job,” said three-time Cy Young award winner Clayton Kershaw. “I feel pretty fortunate that I’ve had him for as long as I’ve had him. We’ve been working together so long. I kind of feel like he understands what helps me and what doesn’t help me. He’s able to communicate that, which is really tough to find.”
Honeycutt is often credited for the impact he has made on the Dodger pitching staff. His studiousness, ability to filter information and communicate and his desire to tackle challenges are all part of what have made him and those around him successful. They’re all characteristics that go back to his playing days.
THE PROVING GROUND
Honeycutt pitched 21 seasons in the big leagues for six different franchises. He led the American League in ERA in 1983 for Texas, the same season he was traded to Los Angeles, where he pitched from ’83 to ’87.
It was with the Dodgers where his mind was opened, by Dodger greats like Sandy Koufax, Carl Erskine and Ron Perranoski and pitching gurus like Red Adams and Dave Wallace.
“It’s amazing to play that amount of time and not hear some of the information I heard here with the Dodgers,” Honeycutt said. “Where most people talked to me about grips and where my arm was and hand on top and ‘Don’t rush,’ they were more about, ‘Let’s have a solid base. Know how you’re using your legs to the max.’ Even using the rubber properly. That was a transition part of my career where I got information that I had never heard. It was extremely important to me.”
Looking back, Honeycutt, 61, claimed he didn’t have the ability of other pitchers and that he got by more on brains. He collected information from the Dodger greats, but also credits influential pitching coach Dave Duncan, for whom he pitched under for parts of 10 seasons, for developing his knowledge.
THE PHILOSOPHY
Honeycutt was hired by the Dodgers in 2001 as a pitching consultant, then became the minor league pitching coordinator in 2002, holding the post until he was appointed the big-league club’s pitching coach in January 2006.
He said he wasn’t bringing something into the organization as much as he was bringing something back to the organization.
“I feel like it’s the philosophy that’s been in this organization for years,” Honeycutt said. “It’s always been strong pitching-wise, and it’s been strong pitching-wise for a reason. It’s because (of) the knowledge handed down from the great coaches and players from the past.
“So when I got an opportunity to get back in the game and in this organization, I continued to press to find more, really talk to anyone I could who had experience in this organization — Sandy and Dave and having Ron as a pitching coach here when I was here (playing) in the organization. It was a lot of knowledge from the past that still makes sense today.”
However, Honeycutt hasn’t just been a guy who took the torch from the past Dodger greats and coaches and regurgitated their thoughts. He said there is a place where he has put his own stamp on Dodger pitching philosophy.
“I was very fortunate to get a better mechanical base of understanding watching a delivery of successful guys and watching how they do it,” he said. “I see things in a different light.
“You look for certain things from the ground up, because when you lift your front leg you have only one touching, so really that’s the control of your whole body. So the focus has to be on how that leg is being used to set up the rest of the throw. So that’s my stamp — really having a solid base (among) the other aspects.”
On top of that, Honeycutt calls it fortune that he spent ample time as both a starter (268 games) and reliever (529) in his Major League career. Because of that duality, he was able to experience everything both types of pitchers have gone through.
THE DEFINITION
Honeycutt defines a pitching coach as part information gatherer, part psychologist, part student. If a pitcher needs information pregame or midgame, Honeycutt believes he has to know it. If a pitcher needs a kick in the butt or encouragement, he has to know when to give it, and who needs what.
On top of that, he understands that knowledge is different from person to person, from organization to organization. So he has a willingness to learn from his pitchers. He has also been open-minded.
“He can mesh with anybody,” said Brett Anderson. “He’s not going to overly exert himself and throw himself upon you. If he feels like he can help you, more often than not, it’s right.
“For me, I couldn’t match up better personality-wise than with him. It’s not talking about baseball mechanics just to do it. There’s obviously some meaning and reason behind it.”
As for serving as psychologist, Honeycutt has also succeeded there.
Said Kershaw: “During the game I’m not very talkative, so he does the best he can. It’s tough. There are so many different guys with so many different personalities and how to talk. I get upset when I don’t pitch well, and he just knows what to say. At the end of the day, we’re all building for the same thing, trying to get everybody outs. (He’s) a good calming presence.”
Despite season-ending injuries to starting pitchers Hyun-Jin Ryu and Brandon McCarthy, the Dodgers were again near the top in pitching in 2015. They were fifth in ERA (3.44), third in WHIP (1.18), FIP (3.43) and strikeouts 1,396 and second in opponents’ OPS .669. The Dodgers were second in starters’ ERA at 3.24.
There’s that common thread with Honeycutt and Dodger pitchers. They don’t change much.
Since 2002, Honeycutt has seen three ownership groups, four general managers and, with Roberts, five managers. But he remains a constant.
“I think the most pride that I have is I feel like I’m consistent,” Honeycutt said. “I’m consistent with my approach to every player, every pitcher. I’m consistent with how I try to prepare them and how I ask them to prepare, and I think that’s really the separator there.”
