The end of the Tyler O’Neill saga in St. Louis is finally upon us, as the Cardinals have traded the outfielder to the Boston Red Sox, both Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Jon Heyman of the New York Post are reporting. The Cardinals acquiring reliever Nick Robertson and prospect Victor Santos in return.
While the entire baseball world had their eyes fixated on the rumors and speculation surrounding Shohei Ohtani’s free agency, it was the oft-injured Candian outfielder who was truly on the move. The Cardinals let the entire baseball world know their intentions to trade O’Neill at the Winter Meetings, and while there were those who had their doubts about the Cardinals finding a trade partner, the Red Sox took the bait.
O’Neill’s career in St. Louis was once promising, coming over to the Cardinals in the Marco Gonzalez trade with Seattle and exciting the organization as a true five-tool player. In 2021, O’Neill finished 8th in Most Valuable Player voting, slashing .286/.352/.560 with 34 HR and 80 RBI while winning his second career Gold Glove and propelling the Cardinals to the playoffs.
Since then, the left fielder has played in just 168 games, posting a .707 OPS while friction grew with the organization regarding his health and availability. O’Neill now gets a fresh start in Boston, where he can try to regain his status as a middle-of-the-order bat with elite defense and speed.
The Red Sox were looking for some outfield help after shipping outfielder Alex Verdugo to the New York Yankees this week, and now add O’Neill to a lineup featuring Rafael Devers, Triston Casas, Masataka Yoshida, and Trevor Story.