The Red Sox announced to reporters that outfielder Tyler O’Neill has been placed on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to May 26, due to right knee inflammation. Infielder Enmanuel Valdéz was recalled in a corresponding move. Julian McWilliams of the Boston Globe was among those to relay the info on X.
O’Neill, 29 next month, started out scorching hot with the Red Sox but has cooled off considerably. He was hitting .320/.433/.693 through the end of April but has hit just .151/.244/.301 since the calendar flipped to May. He told reporters recently that his knee has been bothering him for a bit and was probably affecting his swing, per Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic on X.
Health, or the lack thereof, has been a major factor in the outfielder’s career. A fully healthy O’Neill is capable of being an elite player, as he showed in 2021. He got into 138 games for the Cardinals that year and hit 34 home runs. His .286/.352/.560 batting line translated to a 143 wRC+, or 43% above league average. He also stole 15 bases and got strong grades for his outfield defense. FanGraphs considered him to have been worth 5.3 wins above replacement and he finished eighth in National League Most Valuable Player voting.
But the two subsequent seasons saw him get snakebit by injuries. He only played 168 games combined over the 2022 and 2023 seasons, hitting .229/.310/.397 for a wRC+ of 98. He went to the IL at various times for a right shoulder impingement, a left hamstring strain, a lower back strain and a right foot sprain.
With just one year remaining before he reached free agency and St. Louis having a clogged outfield yet again, they flipped him to Boston for a couple of pitchers. The Red Sox were surely hoping to get the healthy version of O’Neill, so that he could either help them compete or perhaps be flipped for a larger package than what they gave up. Since then, they have seen both extremes of the O’Neill experience.
How the Sox decide to approach the deadline will undoubtedly be determined by how they fare between now and then. They are currently 28-27 and just 2.5 games back of a playoff spot. If they can hover around there for the next few months, they could keep O’Neill around as part of a playoff push. He could be a candidate for a qualifying offer at season’s end, depending on how healthy and effective he is in the second half. Though if he’s healthy and the team falls in the standings, he would likely be available on the trade market this summer.
The fact that his injury is just being described as inflammation, as opposed to a strain or a tear, is perhaps a sign that he won’t be on the IL for too long. Manger Álex Cora suggested as much earlier today, as relayed by Ian Browne of MLB.com on X. With O’Neill joining Masataka Yoshida on the injured list, the outfield mix will consist of Jarren Duran, Wilyer Abreu, Ceddanne Rafaela and Rob Refsnyder for the next little while.
Tyler O’NeILl.
As a Cardinals follower, I am shocked. Simply shocked.
It is a surprise. That it took this long I mean.
Outside of post 4/30? his bat has been mia anyway.
combo of his always injured and flat out looked lost since 5/1.
That’s nothing new, either. Since 2022, he’s spent most of his time either on the IL or playing hurt.
Lan – He needs to hit the gym more ;O)
He needs to get off the damn exercise bike & ditch the Pilates and maybe think about hitting the weights instead. I got some homemade SARMS for him to try
Some players got the IL bug…always.
Glad he’s in Boston. Don’t miss him a bit.
His replacement is in AAA. Edman still hasn’t played a game in 2024. Nootbaars been hurt more than ONeill has. And Carlsons OPS is under 400 and was also hurt.
Nootbaar will be a lot more valuable by the end of the season. Walker will be back up eventually. Donovan is hitting again. Best of all, Burleson has broken out at the plate.
More valuable than ONeill? It’s possible. Walker is hitting poorly at AAA he hasn’t earned another chance. Burleson is 0 for his last 9 and Donovan is really an infielder.
Were you the one who wanted to demote Gorman? I get you and Don Osbourne confused. Gorman is looking great. Him and ONeill are both very streaky hitters.
It’s very likely Nootbaar will be more valuable, since his IL time should pale in comparison to O’Neill’s by season’s end, and while he did have a slump earlier, he’s broken out of it and doesn’t have the same issue of falling into slumps due to playing hurt.
Walker has as long as needed to get back to what he was and will likely do it well before the season ends. At least he’s actually healthy and playing somewhere for the organization.
Are you seriously complaining about an 0-9 stretch for a guy hitting .297/.325/.439 for a wRC+ of 121? The Cardinals don’t actually need Walker with the way Burleson has broken out.
Donovan is equally an IF and OF (or utility man) who has played mostly OF so far this season due to the OF injuries. As such, he’s just as much a part of the discussion as the other OFers.
Gorman has turned it around, but he did deserve it at the time I made that comment.
You can’t predict the future. I thought we established that already with your Gorman comments. If we had sent him down he would have been doing all that damage for Memphos where it doesn’t count. Good thing we didn’t do that.
Walker has a mid 700s OPS at Memphis last time I checked. That’s not good. He’s healthy. Great he’s still not good.
Burleson now has a 749 OPS it dropped 15 points today. And he offers no real defensive value.
It’s a long season. You have no idea what kind of injury ONeill or Nootbaar have at this point in time. Don’t pretend you do.
That’s not good.
=======================
-0- HRs and a 16/7 K/W is awful. My guess is that they are trying to teach him to make more contact, and the expense of power, hoping that if controls the zone better, the power eventually returns.
The narrative coming from fans is the team is screwing up his swing because lord knows nothing is actually Jordan Walker’s fault.
I have no idea what’s going on. Zero homers in the minors and majors combined this year. Last year he could hit but couldn’t play defense. This year his defense improved but he can’t hit. The good thing is he’s young but trading ONeill away was a mistake.
11 hrs and only 17 rbi’s? Get some obp guy infront of him
hoof – A .133 BA with RISP and not even one Sac Fly, that’s the real reason for the lack of RBI.
I suppose that was inevitable. Well he was kind of cheap and if you get 400 or so PA’s out of him and he does his thing, you should get some value there. It just makes it hard to build a consistent team when you sign players with long injury histories as you know you need to have players to cover for that.
casual – Let’s hope he can get healthy soon, like right before the trade deadline. The Sox always had the intention of flipping him, lowers their payroll and improves their farm system.
I liked the signing, still like it. Injured vets allow talented youngsters to get their cup of coffee. When he’s not injured he produces, same with Sale which is why I didn’t like that trade even though we got Grissom. If you have talent backing up the vet then periodic injuries isn’t an issue and the prospect gets valuable experience. Just if ya going to build a roster this way, ya need a deep farm system.
Sale deal was bad because if 1 thing Sox system is loaded at.. it’s middle infielders.
FO knew pitching was going to be tight over the winter, yet still dealt away a possible (again) front end SP for a position the milb system is literally ate up with.
How can you criticize the ONeill trade and then the Sale deal at the same time?
With hindsight. That’s how. If Sale was hurt you would be saying something entirely different.
—With hindsight. That’s how. If Sale was hurt you would be saying something entirely different.—
Someone hasn’t seen/paid any attention to what have posted over the years.
Hindsight is a term more appropriately used to describe rookies and fly-by-nighters here and other places. The kind who post something, but watch only a few games.. At any Pro/college level.
Hindsight is a term used for any judgement after the fact. Anyone can pick winning lotto #s after they’ve been announced, it means nothing though if you hadn’t picked them prior.
I personally was not and am not a fan of the trade from Sox end. However once they had no shot at Ohtani, I have to believe they pivoted to planning for next offseason. Sale alone does not change the trajectory of their 2024 roster. They got some potential young talent for him and I’d assume they ll make some noise this offseason.
You are full of it
Assuming Sale would always be hurt because of recent fluke injuries is idiotic as is unloading a player and paying most of his salary after waiting for him to return to health. It has nothing to do with hindsight a bad trade is deemed as such at the time its made not after the fact and everyone knew he’d pitch great when healthy again.
Sale couldn’t stay healthy from 2019 to 2023. I was happy to get rid of him and get some value in return.
That’s exactly the attitude many fans had with ONeill. But it was always a possibility that the trade was gonna look stupid just like with ONeill.i don’t understand why the Red Sox would acquire ONeill then trade Sale.
Too bad the Red Sox don’t have a lot of depth to cover for those two guys.
What do you know, juice boy is on the shelf once again
Tyler, is as Tyler does.
And this is why the Cardinals wanted to trade him.
For going on the 10 day IL two months into the season?
Yeah, for who knows how long, and that’s after playing hurt and thereby sucking at the plate for the month before that.
If you want a guy who will be a 5-tool player for 2 months of the season, hit well below league average for 1 to 2 months, and not play at all for the remaining 2 to 3 months, you’re welcome to him.
I’m SHOCKED
😉
Sad news, but expected.
“The best ability is availability”
And this is the story of TO’s career.
So…..is O’Neill not in the lineup tonight?
Crav – He’s on the IL, eligible to come back June 5th.
Congratulations to Tyler O’Neill for successfully making it off the IL…once again.
They put him back in RF. Statistically, he’s one of the worst RF in all of baseball. Why put him back there? Even Jordan Walker was better in RF this season than Tyler O’Neill. Jeez, what a liability.