The Red Sox announced they’ve placed Tyler O’Neill on the seven-day concussion injured list, retroactive to April 16. Rob Refsnyder was reinstated from the IL to take the active roster spot.
O’Neill suffered the injury on Monday when he collided with Rafael Devers while tracking a shallow fly ball. O’Neill’s forehead hit the back of Devers’ head. Devers stayed in the game but O’Neill came out. While he initially cleared concussion protocol, he hasn’t played in either of the last two games. He’s evidently still not ready to return and will be out for at least another five days. MassLive’s Christopher Smith tweets that O’Neill was diagnosed with a mild concussion.
Acquired in something of a buy-low offseason trade, O’Neill has been off to a scorching start to his Red Sox tenure. He’s hitting .313/.459/.750 and is third in the majors with seven homers. O’Neill showed impact ability intermittently throughout his time with the Cardinals, but he’d produced at a roughly league average level from 2022-23. He’ll be a free agent for the first time at the end of this season.
In other injury news, manager Alex Cora said the Sox are sending Devers for an MRI on his left knee (relayed by Sean McAdam of MassLive). The two-time All-Star has played through some discomfort in the joint in recent days, although there’s nothing to suggest it’s related to Monday’s collision. He was the designated hitter yesterday but is out of the lineup for this afternoon’s contest with the Guardians.
It seems the current round of imaging is mostly precautionary. The Sox surely want to rule out any possibility that Devers is playing through some kind of structural issue that would necessitate a shutdown. He’s still day-to-day pending the MRI results.
Devers has gotten off to a slow start. He’s hitting only .188 through his first 13 games. A massive 15.5% walk rate has kept his on-base percentage at a respectable clip, but Devers clearly hasn’t found his typical form. His hard contact percentage has been well below his normal level. It’s likely that playing through discomfort — he also battled shoulder soreness around Opening Day — has contributed to the slump. Assuming there’s nothing significantly wrong with his knee, Devers shouldn’t have much issue recapturing his groove offensively.
There’s nevertheless added uncertainty to an already shaky Boston infield. Devers and Triston Casas flank a much less imposing middle infield group. Injuries to Vaughn Grissom and Trevor Story have pushed the likes of Enmanuel Valdez, Pablo Reyes and David Hamilton into meaningful roles. Story is out for the season, so shortstop will remain a question all year unless the Sox go outside the organization.
Grissom, who started the year on the shelf with a hamstring strain, will take over second base within two weeks. He began a minor league rehab assignment last Friday, opening a 20-day window for his activation to the MLB roster. Cora said this morning that the Sox aren’t likely to reinstate Grissom before their forthcoming week-long road trip (X link via The Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey). Grissom didn’t get any game action in March, so he’s using the rehab period as something of an abbreviated Spring Training.
cora and ownership are secretly ok with all these injuries. They can use them as an excuse when the team fails to make the playoffs.
That being said I hope O’Neill is ok. Concussions suck.
They might but it is a impossible sell when they are 26.5 games out in August
The excuse for not making the playoffs should have been the roster construction in the first place. They were a team built of “let’s throw a bunch of crap at the wall and hope it all sticks!”
Between the Red Sox, Cubs and Cardinals, they all took the approach of “The Rays and Brewers don’t spend nearly as much as us and they still win. Imagine how much $ we could make if we use their strategies and don’t take any major long term risks!”
Fans are going to show up for those teams even if they are .500 teams, and if they don’t make the playoffs, ownership still makes a killing.
Its a rebuild year. How do you guys not see that?
The team was gutted 5 years ago
– 31 minor leaguers traded away.
– None of the young talent was locked up.
– A couple of very bad long-term signings.
– Over the cap multiple times, losing 1st round picks and International Pool money.
Hope that 2018 WS was worth it. This is the result of it.
The 2018 World Series prevented them from giving Mookie Betts what he was worth?!? It was going to be a five-year rebuild regardless, but we are past that five year window and still don’t have a player on the roster with half the talent that Betts has in his little finger.
I made 4 general points and never mentioned a player, and yet all you heard was “Mookie Betts”? C’mon.
Oh, I basically agree with you. Sorry, I should have said that up front. But the team never really committed to a reset strategy until (possibly) this year. Bloom kept on signing veteran retreads, allowing his veteran talent to reach free agency rather than finding trades to help restock the farm system. No excuse to go over the cap in 2022. No excuse to let Bogaerts walk — sign him or trade him.
So I don’t think that all the mess of the last five years can be laid at the feet of the 2018 championship. They needed a reset, but they waffled without direction. Remember that “buyers and sellers” line that Bloom kept feeding us?
It is kind of hilarious how the vast majority of this board doesn’t see what’s happening.
I never said “all”. Bloom didnt do a good job, but there was no way anyone couldve. The reset had to take place. Maybe we could be a year ahead of the current schedule, but people who thought we’d be contending in 2 or 3 years are just foolish.
Totally agree on that, the 2021 season was a fluke.
Back in 2020 or thereabouts, I suggested that 2025 was the earliest likely window of contention. They might have potentially advanced it to this season, if they had invested in the club, and if they got lucky, but beyond Devers and maybe Casas there isn’t really any star talent on the roster. Mayer, Anthony, and Teel at least have a chance to be more than average, even if that is far from a sure thing.
Bloom could have done a much better job supporting the rebuild, though. A year is significant.
I like Breslow’s moves thus far. He appears to have a little more vision, and a better sense of roster balance. How many LHH do we need anyways?!?
I think the Red Sox are basically looking toward the future, trying to get a young core in place and avoiding bloated contracts for free agents that will be declining as the young core gets in place. After the young core gets in place, I think they will spend on free agents to fill holes.
By the time he was traded, maybe? Dragging him in arbitration was an ill-considered move. The best time to sign him would have been following the 2016 season.
According to Betts, the Red Sox never made him a $300M+ offer. You think he might have accepted that in November 2016? They didn’t get half way serious until 2019, and by then the ship had sailed. “But we tried!!!” Sad that so many fans actually believe that line.
@All, that is certainly an optimistic view of the situation. i hope you are right!
I like that they are trying to get the young talent signed to deals that take them through their prime years. Keep pumping that line and it should set them up nicely.
That is *if* they are willing to spend again at that point. Wish I could be as confident as you on that.
TFF17: If they spent $330M on Devers, I think they will spend again. I think they will largely focus on locking up younger players early.
APBA – Incredibly uniformed. You have to be a Yankee fan troll or the dumbest baseball fan ever.
The gutting took place when DD got fired and any average Red Sox fan can see that in hind sight.
You mention how many pretenders were traded away and forget to mention the sucked and amounted to nothing. Even the highest rated players like Moncada and Espinoza end up being busts or near bust based on the rankings.
Locking up the key players were on DD schedule since his entire time from 2016 to 2022 was on a plan. Mookie was to follow Sale and get offered the extension in the early spring ONE FULL YEAR prior to free agency. Mookie was due for the extension after his second arbitrary year. The $36MM was only a $9MM raise and his skill level is HOF so a 8, 10 or 12 year contract should have been the target.
The only bad long term contracts were by Bloom.
The CAP issue is on Cherington so that happened long before the 5 years you suggested.
The international pool money lost is also on Cherington.
The 2018 World Series was worth it because at the time the Red Sox were by far the best team in baseball with a GM who had a very detailed plan for the next four years and plenty of money because they make plenty of money with their exceptionally high prices and all the merchandising of a winning organization.
APBA – Go back to where ever you came from – Yankee website or some other troll location.
The guy with “Troll” right in his name is calling other people trolls. Lol.
Sorry you seem to be incredibly uninformed, if you think the only players of value traded away were Moncada and Espinoza.
What about Manuel Margot?
What about Maurice Dubon?
What about Jalen Beeks?
What about Michael Kopech?
He didnt just trade away a few prospects. He traded away anyone with a pulse. These players wouldve created a gateway to the next generation of players. DD did a terrible job drafting in his first year widening the gap, but then to trade away 31 players. The lack of talent was impossible to miss.
Either youre completely ignorant of these players, or youre intentionally avoiding naming them, because thats what troll’s do. Trolls never debate honestly.
Those early-career contracts tend to be the best deals. If you sign a free agent who is 29, you hope for 2-3 good years before his career collapses and you end up paying for 4+ years of mediocrity. Sometimes you don’t even get those two good years. I loved Bogaerts as a player, but paying $200M for his 30s is a bad joke.
APBA
Hope that 2018 WS was worth it. This is the result of it.
=============================
It was. By 2019, we had:
1-The highest payroll in baseball.
2-The #30th ranked farm.
3-An 84-78 record.
I think it was less the talent that we traded away, and more the contracts that we signed, that came back to haunt us. Post-2018, we got very little from Sale, Price, and Eovaldi.for the $75M or so that we paid them.
But we also did this, imo, because Henry wanted B2B WSC’s. And I’d have done the same thing.
championships are always worth it
Why don’t we see it as a rebuilding year? Because you have guys in the front office saying we are “going full throttle.” What is said doesnt match what was done. Can’t blame Cora on this one, he plays with what’s given.
APBA – This is where you need to wake up and evaluate players on talent. Unless you plagiarize an article by Christopher Smith from 2017 BEFORE anyone had a chance to do anything of value but I’ll still teach you baseball and try to lessen your ignorance.
Margot is a lifetime OPS+ player with a 91. Very valuable. A 100 OPS+ would have been worth more so it was addition by subtraction.
Dubon drafted in 2013 sucked until DD traded him and he became a bad player for other teams while Boston benefitted from the deal. In six years he has had OPS+ of 88 in both the American League and National League so like Margot he was a crap player who wasn’t even league average and he returned a needed player.
Beeks was a joke of a pitcher in Boston through 2018 went they dumped him on TB. Bullet dodged. You know who wasn’t dumped? Houck, Bello, Crawford. They weren’t pretenders they were legitimate prospects. See that’s why you dump pretenders and keep real prospects. Something you clearly don’t get Troll.
Kopech has been CWS since Sale arrived in Boston and has no success. Two full years on the IL. Boy that would have helped Boston. Then 14 wins in 99 starts. Yep. Another pretender!!!
You are simply ignorant and a Troll who isn’t even smart enough to hide the fact that you plagiarize columns.
masslive.com/redsox/2018/01/dave_dombrowskis_bosto… says everything you said and long before results existed. That’s not your opinion it’s the actions of a troll who cheap shots Boston fans.
BUSTED you moron. Trolling a Red Sox site as a dumb +++ is a dangerous thing to do. You look more foolish that you can imagine but hey it’s to be expected of someone your age and intelligence. So keep chirping and be the fool you are.
Oh but you do, swami?
Well said Troll!
Ryan – Totally agree about crap on the wall, I’ve said that myself numerous times! LOL!!
I haven’t followed the Cubs and Cards situations that closely, but I can say with certainty Red Sox organic revenue has plunged the past few years.
This team was never going to make the playoffs unless everything broke perfectly, and how likely is that? I think fans are smart enough to realize that.
grnmtn – Is ownership even aware of the injuries?
John Henry is probably out shopping with Linda, and Werner is in England after attending Liverpool’s game.
But yeah, they went into the season not caring about injuries. After all, no money lost …. right?
I know why he’s on the IL this time but, he was bound to be on it sometime anyway.
What a dumb comment.
You’ll see.
How many home runs does the entire Cardinals outfield have in 2024?
Walker is garbage. Nootbaar just came off the IL. Edman and Carlson are still hurt. Burleson again garbage.
You can keep hating
Why are you calling a black man garbage? Racist
I called Burleson garbage too dipwad.
Walker is awful. He hasn’t been any good since he was in AA in 2022. That’s a fact.
Not talking about home runs. Talking about IL and you’ll see.
Why would you make a comment like that? Show me on the doll where ONeill hurt you.
Luckily this is the last comment I have to read of yours.
And when he returns, he’ll put less effort in running the bases and get criticized publicly by his manager.
Rinse and repeat.
Old – In all fairness to Tyler, it slows down your running when you have to stop every few seconds to flex and pose! LOL!!
The manager is the problem in St Louis it was never ONeill. I don’t think Cora is as dumb os Marmol but in fairness I don’t know much about Cora.
I think the Red Sox need to pack it in for the year. They weren’t going to be good at full strength, let alone with all the injuries.
Ugh, shades of Duvall last year….Low-key addition, scorching start, freak injury.
Totally different injuries obviously but Duvall hit .223/.279/.474 after he came back. Hopefully a different story with O’Neill
I was thinking the same thing.
dirty – I was thinking the same thing!
And neither player had ever played for an AL team before.
Literally repeating the 2023 Adam Duvall season
Didn’t Devers take someone out a few years back also. Can’t remember his name.
Beltre took out Ellsbury on a similar play, a few years back…
Don’t touch Beltre’s head.
Lol. I remember that! A lamb getting ran over by a bull!
Tyler O’Neill hurt? I find that hard to believe.
Question- Has he ever been OFF the IL?
@Unclemike1526
I saw him mash a HR off Corbin Burns. So, at least one day.
His IL stints never appear to affect his lifting schedule
Does he lift with his face?
DBH – It’s impossible to answer that question while keeping it G-rated here! LOL!!
we talking O’Neil or Bauer?
DBH – Nice comeback as always! ;O)
In related news, he woke up and found himself along with the Yacht rock revue Toto in Kansas. Sorta like Benintendi
O’Neill’ has 7HRs with only 8RBIs. When he returns, Cora needs to adjust the lineup to get people on in front of him. That’s just terrible lineup construction.
Cora stinks at his lineups, he has Valdez batting cleanup today.
Anyone know why Bernardino was pulled after 2 innings? I am at work, so am using gameday
I think that was all he was suppose to. Its a bullpen game. Last year he made 6 starts and in those starts, only pitched a total of 9 innings. (But, Im not watching either).
He has been pitching as a short reliever, so that is already a small stretch for him. He pitched well.
TFF – You watching the game now? If so, yeah it was a horrible throw by Pablo but Casas looked silly trying to catch it. If he had at least come off the bag to snag it, wouldn’t have been a 2-base error.
Sorry I love Casas the hitter, but Casas the fielder still sucks.
Geez, I knew I shouldn’t jinx things!
You are right, Casas leaves a lot to be desired defensively.
TFF – Did you see what I just saw? Cora FORGOT he wasn’t allowed to challenge that call because he FORGOT he already lost a challenge today!
Seriously ….. how can a manager expect his players to keep their heads in the game when he himself can’t?
I turned it off to work on some stuff. Mostly watching for the starting pitching these days (will generously include Cooper Criswell in that group).
casas is keith hernandez compared to the left side of the infield
He’s a relief pitcher. I thought he might be pulled after one inning, but his PC was low.
Just great. Houck goes 9, resets the pen, and Cora decides to over-tax the pen the next day.
I don’t get it!
Criswell is a 4-5 inning pitcher at best, and this was his turn. Not seeing any decent starter they could have called on instead?
DBH – This time we can’t blame Cora. It was supposed to be Cooper’s start, but Cora decided to use a lefty opener instead. Cooper won’t go more than 4-5 innings anyway, so Bernardino would have pitched a couple innings no matter what.
Too bad Criswell couldn’t last longer… Jacques is laughably bad.
Fair enough, TF and FPG. Like I said, at work, so not 100% keyed in today 🙂
DBH – Same here, I’m trying to watch the game but keep getting these work interruptions …. so annoying! LOL!
As a Cardinals fan I alwa6ys liked O’Neil. I thought he could carry the offense, making the Cards King of the NL Central. I was wrong. When he was traded I wondered how long until he hit the IL. Not long is the correct answer. I was rooting for him despite his failure to lead the Cards.
Maybe it will just be this one trip to the IL and done, but I have doubts.
Best of luck, Tyler.
He was never paid to be a leader for the Cardinals. He was given away for basically nothing in the offseason while 3 of the top 4 remaining Cardinals outfielders started the year on the IL and the healthy one is Walker who sucks and didn’t earn his job.
Haters gonna hate.
Daryl – Tyler has a very bad temper from what I’m told, it would be kinda cool if he went off on Cora one day.
Usually we he comes off the DL he goes into a deep dark slump. We’ve seen that before
How’s Jordan Walker doing? His whole career is a slump…..
Love Jordan Walker. He’s only 22 years old donk
What has Jordan Walker done that would make you feel that way?
As the GM of another team said about his player: Injuries are part of his game.
A concussion is different, but this won’t be his last trip to the IL.
Are you rooting for him to get hurt?
Haters gonna hate.
@Blackpink, no, I have him on my fantasy baseball team.
Lord – What makes it frustrating is neither Devers nor O’Neill called for it …. their lips weren’t moving, their tongue wasn’t moving, and they weren’t waving their arms.
It’s just another example of a lack of fundamentals, not surprising unfortunately.
@Fevee, I didn’t see the play, so that is unfortunate if neither were calling for the ball.
Sox need to just bite the bullet and call up Mayer. They need quality defense at SS , and Story would’ve been just fine had he not suffered another freak injury. Mayers glove is ready.
You can’t rush up players from AA, you will only mess up their development. Instead of ruining the future stars, Sox should just sign a journeyman, glove first shortstop.
DBH – Or put Rafaela at shortstop.
Honestly, that should have been done the daystar went down.
There is depth in the OF, but NONE in the IF.
I figured they didn’t want Rafaela at SS since they had Story. I was more surprised when they indicated, at least initially, that they planned to keep Rafaela in the OF after Story got injured. Maybe they’ve rethought that.
Come on guys, this IL stint is because of a collision; not his usual IL reasons. It’s a shame. He was on an impressive run. I do hope he picks up where he left off when he returns.
Some are gonna blame his big forehead or soft skull.
Lot of weird haters here. It’s true he has had injury problems and it’s because he was training like a bodybuilder not a baseball player. People are weirdly jealous of him like catty little girls.
You seem obsessed with defending him. He’s had literally ONE good season in his career. Just because someone doesn’t like a player doesn’t make them jealous, either. The two aren’t mutually exclusive.
Why would someone not like ONeill? Why??? If you are a Cardinals fan why would you not like him?
He was good in 2018.
He wasn’t allowed to play in 2019 and 2020
He had injury problems in both 2022 and 2023 but even when he was healthy Marmol would sit him 1 out of 4 games.
The Cardinal outfield in 2024 has been terrible. He would be helping the Cardinals win games in 2024 if he was still around.
I never said I didn’t like him. And I thought it was a mistake to trade him but the writing was on the wall after that nonsense with Marmol calling him out early last season. No clue why he was given an extension but with ole bow-tie Mo running things it didn’t surprise me.
I am obsessed with defending him because there are lots and lots of Cardinals fans who hate on him. Many have commented on this very post you can see the comments. Yes Marmol needs to go and I think he will be fired soon regardless of that extension.
Love the guy in the bullpen the Cardinals got for vastly overrated O’Neil
You mean Robertson? He has a live arm, just very hittable. Maybe the Cardinals can help him?
Blackpink – Totally agree. They treated Harper in a similar fashion when he bulked up and had some injuries.
It’s as if nobody saw the numbskull Devers show his complete lack of baseball acumen YET AGAIN!! Being the center of attention is a way of life for the loser. Sure he can hit but he’s not a baseball player because he doesn’t understand the game isn’t about him. We called them hot dogs in the old days. Players seeking attention due to big egos with underlying low esteem.
Someone needs to move him to DH and tell him the drama is over as is his use of a glove. Fix the team don’t soothe egos of grossly over paid players and immature personalities.
Harper used to play all out he was like Pete Rose. But then he hurt himself sliding off the bag at first on a rainy day and he changed.
Life is about learning. ONeill was training in a way that led to injuries and I think he has changed this.
I’m here for the Joel and Korean K-Pop Band.
Is O’Neill in the Lineup?
What’s Jordan Walker’s OPS?
How’s Carlson doing?
Edman?
Burleson?
At least Walker can play defense. Oh wait……
I bet he took too long getting the CT Scan, and his coach called him out for doggin’ it.
Or do you think he pulled a muscle during the imaging process? Never heard of that before, but Tyler loves to invent new ways to miss games.
Haters gonna hate. You are pathetic.
ONeill has just as many homers as the entire Cardinals team has in the last week.
Sox at home 3-7. Useless
Yet another game lost by errors.
Good thing Cora is focusing on errors this
Year. Lmfao
infield defense is killing you guys right now
dasit – It’s not just infield, it’s outfield too.
Duran and O’Neill have errors, and both Rafaela & Abreu each has THREE errors while playing the OF.
Nobody imagined it was possible for the defense to be worse than it was last year …. but it sure is.
Some of their throwing decisions have me scratching my head…. A young team, but they shoulda been figuring this out last year in the minors.
This is eerily reminiscent of Adam Duvall last year. Off to a “scorching” start and then injured. Hopefully Tyler is not sidelined as long.
Knuckles – Last year Rizzo missed 2 months because of a concussion, and Eric Lindros had his career ended because of concussions. You just never know.
If O’Neill were a hockey player, he would have been playing again before the end of the period. Soft player, no doubt.