The Orioles announced that outfielder Tyler O’Neill has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to neck inflammation. The placement is retroactive to April 24. Outfielder Dylan Carlson was called up from Triple-A to take O’Neill’s place on the 26-man roster.
O’Neill didn’t play in Baltimore’s game on Thursday and presumably wouldn’t have played yesterday either, had the Orioles’ game with the Tigers not been rained out. Manager Brandon Hyde told reporters (including Jacob Calvin Meyer of the Baltimore Sun) that the IL placement was meant “to get [O’Neill] right” and completely over his neck soreness, though the outfielder isn’t expected to miss more than the minimum 10 days.
Signed to a three-year, $49.5MM guarantee in December, O’Neill was the biggest acquisition of the Orioles’ offseason, though the deal could end up being a one-year, $16.5MM pact if O’Neill triggers an opt-out clause at season’s end. After hitting his customary Opening Day home run, O’Neill has yet to really get rolling this season, as he has hit only two homers in total while batting .215/.284/.385 in 74 plate appearances. The outfielder’s walk and hard-contact rates are down, and he has continued his high-strikeout ways with a 28.4% strikeout rate.
O’Neill’s .337 xwOBA is much higher than his .293 wOBA, so there is at least some evidence that he has just been somewhat unlucky in the season’s first month. His IL stint might well act as an unofficial reset point for O’Neill’s 2025 season and Orioles tenure, once his neck heals up.
It was only a matter of when.
New poll: how many times will he be on the IL this season? I’m saying two more, total of three.
dewey – I don’t care about the elephant in the room, I’m gonna mention this anyways ….. in my lifetime I don’t ever recall a MLB player going on the IL for “Neck Inflammation”, do you?
It sure as hell sounds like yet another lifting-related injury, unless somebody here has evidence he got hit in the neck with a pitch.
The fact Mark made no mention of how the injury occurred is telling.
Nah, just a tough night of Olympic caliber sex and Tyler gets wrecked.
Verlander had a neck issue a couple of years back, cause was not disclosed.
As someone who has lifted for over forty years it is very easy to screw the neck up. I probably hurt my neck in every way possible except dropping a weight on it.
Seriously though, one of my injuries resulted in, almost fifteen years later, in almost daily migraines that went on for twenty years. Narcotics don’t help, they only allow a certain disassociation from the pain, a bad way to live. And surgeons really did NOT want me to go that route. I’m writing about this subject because I know that a lot of you guys lift. CONCENTRATE on your every rep, stop when you are two reps from failure, and keep your spine aligned! You will make better gains, and remember that you are likely to live past forty! Don’t live for decades in chronic pain because of what these imbecilic magazines say!
Spine and neck stuff sucks. Nerve pain is about the worst cause like you said nothing really makes it go away. Nothing like feeling like you are getting burned by oil every minute of the day.
Yankee-I pinched a nerve once, but this was due to suddenly doing about 10 hours of home repair daily for 6 weeks prepping a house for sale after I’d already stopped the heavy lifting. Plus I was already 42 not in my prime as O’Neill should be. At that point I had to drive left handed as my right arm would go numb after 5 min with hand on the wheel and my neck then basically froze in place. Chiropractor alleviated 90% of my neck and back issues, I have to go every few weeks now as it flares up now as I am in my 50s, definitely recommend.
I didn’t have the body type though, at 6-3 the heaviest I ever got while lifting that hard was 215. I cringe every time I see these kids do “bench max” by arching their backs and pushing it 6″. All that is on their upper back and neck.
Man, the people who comment regularly on this site are just a special breed of stupid. Zero evidence that the injury is related to weight training, but because the guy is muscular, there must be a conspiracy of silence to make sure no one knows he got hurt while lifting. Do you realize how insane that sounds?
I guarantee that chiropractor has done more to prolong your back issues than anything you did lifting weights.
rare – Do you realize how insane it is to ignore so much Prima Facie evidence (look up the term)?
Also you really should research the guy’s history, including his injury history. There’s hundreds of muscular MLB players who don’t have Tyler’s history, being muscular has nothing to do with the conversation.
The only player I can think of that may be somewhat comparable is Stanton.
Not surprising that the only counter argument you have is to just assume I know nothing about the player in question. Post some evidence for your claim or just shut up
Rare – Let’s summarize why this is your final chance.
You started by calling every regular commenter “a special breed of stupid”. Leading with a global insult, that’s strike one.
Then instead of providing any type of facts or logic to support your belief that your idol Tyler O’Neill’s injury was not related to working out, you don’t provide crap. Absolutely nothing.
I assumed you know nothing about Tyler’s history because of your idiotic comments and the fact you brought absolutely nothing to the table.
The only other option would be you DO know the reasons why this was likely a workout related injury but you refuse to admit it because you’re a massive fanboy of his.
So if you don’t want anyone to “assume”, then by all means tell us which is it ….. are you ignorant, or just white knighting?
Either way, I’ve already posted a ton of FACTS AND LOGIC under this article and I sure as hell aren’t gonna spoon-feed anymore for someone who is too lazy and arrogant to do the research themself.
If you are incapable of conducting Google searches, go upstairs and ask your Mom to do it for you.
Lastly, only a complete moron would think that ANY baseball player would publicly admit an injury was related to them working out too hard.
And if you think you can bully me by telling me to “shut up”, you damn well picked the wrong guy fella.
Tyler O’Neill cares more about bodybuilding than baseball.
He is not dedicated to baseball, he’s dedicated to bodybuilding just like his Dad who won Mr. Canada years ago …. and BTW it wasn’t the 100% drug-free WNBF that he won the title in.
So again, this is your last chance to cut the crap.
rare – I guarantee you not only are you incorrect but the confidence at which you say it makes you sound especially idiotic.
Baseball and bodybuilding don’t mesh
Buyer beware….
sox – It saddens me to see an article that once again throws out a bunch of analytics and a conclusion of him being simply “unlucky”, while completely ignoring the most telling issue …… the ridiculous reverse splits.
Tyler has actually been performing BETTER than usual against RHP, but has been shockingly horrible vs LHP:
.881 OPS vs RHP
.190 OPS vs LHP
How bad has he been against lefties? 2-for-21 with no walks and no extra-base hits.
Now compare that to last year:
.693 OPS vs RHP
1.180 OPS vs LHP
And 2023 …
.684 OPS vs RHP
.794 OPS vs LHP
And 2022 …
.673 OPS vs RHP
.788 OPS vs LHP
And 2021 …
.888 OPS vs RHP
1.026 OPS vs LHP
This is something that HAS to be mentioned when discussing O’Neill’s struggles this season. I have a feeling I know why the horrible numbers vs LHP this year, but I’m keeping it to myself.
SSS. No, extreme SSS.
Major – With all due respect, saying the numbers have no value because the season is only a month old doesn’t provide any insight.
Mark attributes Tyler’s overall putrid numbers as “just bad luck”. Are you aware of the probability of a player having bad luck JUST against LHP, and having good luck JUST against RHP?
Are you saying all the O’s opponents just happen to field poorly ONLY when they have a RHP on the mound and just happen to field spectacularly ONLY when they have a LHP on the mound?
No, they’re saying that there haven’t been enough events to determine whether his performance is representative of his true talent or if it’s a product of random variation. Guys go through intermittent slumps all the time. You’re only noticing it because TON’s slump is happening when it can’t be obscured by rest of season stats. It’s idiotic to put this much stock in a month of games.
rare – You’re being totally irrational.
If it was “merely a slump” or even just “merely bad luck” it would also be negatively impacting his PA’s against RHP …. but it’s not.
You remind me of the people who two offseasons ago insisted Boras wasn’t the reason for the late free agent market, even though the five free agents who signed late were all Boras clients. LOLOLOL!!
You really don’t seem to understand how statistical variation works. I advise you to take a stats course or talk to your 3rd grade teacher before you start trying to predict the future based on <100 PAs.
rare – A reading comprehension course is in your future if you plan to get a real job someday.
Nowhere did I make any predictions about his future performance. With his injury history he might be lucky to even get into 80 more games this season.
Over paid. Should have focused on starting pitchers
Give him a chance,between him and Carlson you have a good full time player.
Dad – Okay I give up, who is the good full time player standing between O’Neill and Carlson?
And why isn’t the good full time player playing?
Related: I can’t believe how bad Jordan Walker is at baseball.
Walker still only 23. He’s left alot to be desired with his glove. This doesn’t bode well with his hitting regressing yr after yr. He’s striking out more often as well which is never a good sign.
Hopefully he’s been playing hurt because he’s been awful.
He doesn’t play hurt
Hahahaha!
What do you do? He’s too good in the field to DH but his bat is always going to be missed in the lineup and he cannot stay healthy. This isn’t new though this is his entire career nobody should be surprised. Forget the slow start he can flat hit but I’m curious how many games he averages a year
This has got to be his 15th career IL trip. His Popeye muscles can’t stay on the field.
A lot of “I know everything” people on this subject. The player has a history of “injuries” that don’t seem to be baseball related. The rest is speculation. Leave it at that.