Honeyman hopes to build on AFL momentum after monster homer

ST. LOUIS – So much of his baseball career and enormous potential derailed by shoulder and hamstring injuries through the years, Travis Honeyman can occasionally still show why he was once considered to be one of college baseball’s most complete hitters.

These days, the speedy outfielder is hoping that his strong start in the Arizona Fall League is the beginning of a run that will help him rise through the Cardinals' Minor League system and finally reach the big leagues.

Honeyman, 24, proved just how excited he was about getting selected to play in the AFL by drilling a 429-foot home run last week off Royals’ 6-foot-6 prospect Hunter Owen. The smash came complete with a bat flip from Honeyman, who hit three home runs over 82 games this past season at Single-A Palm Beach and High-A Peoria.

“Take balls and swing at strikes,” Honeyman said of the approach that led to one of the longest home runs of his pro career. “When it's going well, it's going well. I feel like with the way I am as a hitter, it never really gets too bad because I can run a little. When I'm going well, obviously there are going to be more extra-base hits, homers and more confidence.”

The Cardinals are hoping that playing in the AFL will spark the confidence of Honeyman, who was considered by many Draft experts to be a first-round pick in the 2023 MLB Draft following a stellar three-year career at Boston College and four-homer summer in the Cape Cod League in 2022. However, the Massapequa, N.Y., native tore the labrum and rotator cuff in his left shoulder just weeks before the Draft – something just dropped him into the third round where the Cards snagged him with the No. 90 pick in 2023.

“Projections are projections, and they don't mean much, but I was projected to go a little bit earlier and, obviously, [make] more money and stuff like that,” said Honeyman, who signed with the Cardinals for a $700,000 signing bonus. “But I honestly think that everything happens for a reason. I'm a firm believer in that. So, the Cardinals taking me [in the third round], I think that that was supposed to happen. I'm blessed.”

Honeyman is one of eight Cardinals prospects playing in the AFL for the Glendale Desert Dogs. Pitchers Chen-Wei Lin, Tyler Bradt, D.J. Carpenter, Randel Clemente, and Darlin Saladin are on the roster, along with outfielders Miguel Ugueto and Honeyman and catcher Graysen Tarlow. Ugueto, who played at three levels in the Cardinals’ Minor League system in 2025, hit a three-run, opposite-field home run last week. Six-foot-seven right-hander Chen-Wei Lin, the No. 16 prospect in the Cards' system, per MLB Pipeline, struck out four over two scoreless innings.

As for Honeyman, he has two hits, the towering home run, three runs scored and two stolen bases in as many tries. He knows the Cardinals have often used the AFL as a finishing school of sorts for prospects they believe are on the cusp of reaching MLB soon.

“Everybody's really talented here and obviously, if your organization's sending you here, there's a reason why,” Honeyman said. “When [Cards’ director of player development] Larry Day told me in Peoria that I was going to the Fall League, I told him that I had been following this league forever and it’s been a dream of mine since I can remember. I can remember, maybe 10 years ago, watching YouTube videos of Ronald Acuña Jr. starring in the Fall League. So, I’ve always wanted to be here.”

What Honeyman wants now more than anything is to stay healthy and avoid the kind of injuries that have slowed his career. After compiling seasons of .908 and .917 OPS totals in his final two seasons at Boston College, the shoulder injury that required major reconstruction sapped much of his power. Finally over that injury and promoted to High-A Peoria on May 27, disaster struck again two days later when he pulled a hamstring while sprinting to first base. That injury cost him more than two weeks, but he did return in time to post a .268/.340/.322/.713 slash line with five doubles and a homer in 53 games with Peoria.

“Yeah, the injuries have definitely been a challenge mentally,” said Honeyman, whose older brother Bobby was a 29th-round Draft pick by the Mariners in 2018 and topped out at Double-A in 2021. “I’ve got a great support staff with my brother and my family and a lot of guys in the Cardinals' organization that have helped me get through rehab and stuff like that. So, it’s been rocky, but it feels good to get back out there playing again.”