Sox trade for Tyler O’Neill

[longgame]

Nick Robertson and Victor Santos in return.

The Sox cited his “potential” and this is someone Bloom would pick up. Plays about a half a season regularly.  Good when he’s on the field.  Power, good defense.  But has only played even close to a full season once.  If he’s healthy, great, but guys that are injured every year tend to continue to get injured. He’s a real jacked up guy which probably contributes to it.

[Sea Dog 23]

Nick Robertson and Victor Santos in return.

The Sox cited his “potential” and this is someone Bloom would pick up. Plays about a half a season regularly.  Good when he’s on the field.  Power, good defense.  But has only played even close to a full season once.  If he’s healthy, great, but guys that are injured every year tend to continue to get injured. He’s a real jacked up guy which probably contributes to it.

I've watched the Cards quite a bit.  O'Neill is a righty bat and plays mostly LF.  He does play full bore, but brings some drama!  Plus he's a two-time gold glover.  We sacrifice quite a bit with Verdugo to O'Neill, as O'Neill's bat has dropped off since his big 2021 season.

Ironic thing about O'Neill, he was the Cards version of bad boy Verdugo.  Five games into the season, Cards manager dressed O'Neill down in public for not hustling and later benched him.  Neither of the Cards were happy the rest of the year.  He was expendable.  Has only played as much as 95 games twice in five years.  Has had back issues and knees.

"O’Neill, 28, owns a career .248/.318/.458 slash line over six Major League seasons, all spent with the Cardinals. He is a two-time Gold Glove Award winner and had a big year for St. Louis in 2021, when he belted 34 home runs and posted a .912 OPS in 138 games.

Over the past two seasons, O’Neill was hampered by various injuries, playing in a combined 168 games over which he hit .229/.310/.397 with 23 homers.

[MongoLikeSox]

Oh boy!!! You know, I was hoping for a break - make that needing a break - from this dumpster diving crap. I full well expected Breslow to NOT get high drama guys, being an ex-player. Hopefully he's not a clubhouse disaster. If he is, shame on Breslow.

That said, at least it's a different section of the dumpster. He's productive on both sides of the ball when healthy. Not as good of a bat as Duvall save for that one year, but kind of along those lines with the stats. Decent power, low BA amd OBP numbers. 28% K-rate's a little high for my tastes. His lifetime platoon-splits are .252 to .247, but I full well expect our geniuses in charge to turn it into a platoon situation. Compared to some other dumpster dives we've made the past 4 years, this one's got more than one tool AND can produce when healthy.

Pairs up with Duran decently enough. High energy ripped guys. I hope they get along for everyone's sake. Maybe they can talk OF defense when doing reps together. 

He's a one year guy, which is perfect for us. I was hoping to get Duvall back, actually, or at least someone like him.

And the outbound train - I was looking forward to seeing what new pitching coaches would do with Nick Robertson. Victor Santos is a starting pitcher who we've promoted as steadily as anyone and maybe was a couple years ahead of the rest, but nobody ever talked about him all that much. I think I've expected him to make it to the big leagues within a couple of years as a back end rotation type. fwiw, his Worcester jump was not a disaster like many others in recent years. He's been doing OK in Winter ball recovering from his elbow injury.

[SeaBeachFred]

If O'Neill can stay healthy he is young enough to maybe get his game back on track.  He was a victim of being jerked around by the Cardinals because of their plethora of outfielders all emerging from the minors at the same time.  Of course, we know all about our players being jerked around by Cora for his favorites to get more action.  Still it come be a decent pickup for something a little above mediocrity.  Now we need to get some real top notch talent.  Hey Henry, you ready to open your safe for a change?