After injury in 2023, Vance Honeycutt is back and ready for pivotal season at UNC

Vance Honeycutt made a name for himself as a freshman in 2022 at UNC, but the 2023 season didn’t go quite as planned. The year wasn’t as productive as many expected it to be for the five-tool centerfielder, and a late-season injury just added to the frustrations for Honeycutt.

Now, though, Honeycutt is back healthy and ready to begin an important season in Chapel Hill. At UNC baseball’s media day, Honeycutt looked back on the challenging 2023 campaign and how difficult it was to battle through his back injury.

“At first, it was tough hearing you can’t finish out the year,” Honeycutt said. “Not fun for anybody. Had a good support group talking to me daily and just talking about what you need to do to get back and those types of things. Just thinking about it in the positives. It could be a blessing in disguise. It sucks right now, but looking at the future.”

Honeycutt played in 50 games as a sophomore, hitting .257 with 12 home runs and 43 RBI in 191 at-bats. He stole 19 bases as well.

But while the injury brought a sour end to his season, Honeycutt didn’t let that get him down. Instead, he got back to work and looked ahead to 2024, and now he’s ready to show that he’s healthy once again.

“Kind of two ways to go about it I felt like. You could really work hard and do the rehab right and get back the best you can, or you could just kind of wait to get healthy,” said Honeycutt. “I chose to put my head down and get to work on that, and came back in the fall and felt great.”

Honeycutt’s freshman campaign in 2022 opened eyes nationally, making him one of the top prospects for the 2024 MLB Draft. He was once viewed as the potential No. 1 overall pick after hitting .296 as a freshman with 25 home runs, 57 RBI and 29 stolen bases.

Heading into 2024, Honeycutt is still highly ranked as a professional prospect. The D1Baseball third-team All-American was the No. 6 overall pick in MLB Pipeline’s first 2024 MLB mock draft back in December. And that pressure hasn’t been something he has shied away from.

“This is the spot you want to be in, the spot you’ve worked your whole life for,” he said. “You want to acknowledge that, you don’t want to deny that. But also, this is the fun part. You put all the work in prior, and now you get to go out and play with your boys and have a lot of fun.”

UNC’s Scott Forbes believes Honeycutt is now as strong as he’s ever been

UNC surely missed Honeycutt during the end of the season in 2023. The Tar Heels went 2-1 in the ACC Tournament, falling in the semifinal, before going 1-2 in the Terre Haute Regional and falling to Iowa.

When discussing the impact of losing Honeycutt for the postseason, UNC head coach Scott Forbes admitted that losing the star outfielder was an enormous blow.

“Vance last year, we sweep NC State, and I felt like we were gaining some momentum. And you can’t make excuses. Our guys still battled. They made a run in the ACC Tournament. But our guys know that was a blow,” Forbes said of Honeycutt. “To get him back has been awesome for our guys. Best centerfielder in the country. I mean, he’s a game changer defensively, obviously you guys know what he can do offensively. But it’s been a process.

“When you have an injury like that, my big thing the whole time with Vance was, why rush? There’s no reason to rush. So we probably even took it a little bit slower, but he played that last game 100% against Liberty in the fall. He has felt great. It’s healed.”

But, as UNC completes their final preparations for the 2024 season, Forbes sees a new Honeycutt that might be as strong as he’s ever been. And Forbes will be keeping a close eye on the health of Honeycutt throughout the year.

“He doesn’t do as much heavy lifting, he does more core stuff, but he looks like he’s been lifting heavy because he’s as strong as he’s ever been… He’s the type of kid that I’m going to have to say, ‘Hey man, you’re not hitting today.’ He wants to live back there in the cages. Let’s keep an eye on that thing and don’t let it be aggravated again. But it shouldn’t be, he’s healthy,” Forbes concluded.

UNC gets the 2024 season underway on Friday, Feb. 16 at home against Wagner.