The Boston Red Sox struck in the trade market on Friday afternoon, acquiring slugging outfielder Tyler O'Neill in a deal with the St. Louis Cardinals.
The move is an interesting one, as the 28-year-old O'Neill is in the final year of his rookie contract. He's the classic "buy low" candidate: O'Neill is coming off an injury-plagued season in which he hit just nine homers and posted a .231 average. That said, he hit 34 homers in 2021 and finished in the Top-10 of National League MVP voting.
Let's examine the deal and what it means:
1) The Red Sox needed a right-handed outfielder. After seeing Adam Duvall hit the free agency market, the team needed to replace him. Now, O'Neill can slot in as a starter among whichever combination of lefties that manager Alex Cora wants to run out there.
2) The Red Sox also needed a more veteran presence out there. After trading Alex Verdugo to the Yankees on Tuesday night, the team was set to run out a very young/inexperienced outfield group. This helps addresses that also.
3) O'Neill is a lottery ticket for this team. The Red Sox turned castoff Hunter Renfroe practically into a 30/100 guy in 2021 and then got good production from Duvall in 2023. If O'Neill can become that and revert back to his 2021 form, the Sox will have gotten a powerful bargain.
4) Finally, the acquisition creates another logjam in the outfield. In addition to O'Neill, the Sox have veteran Rob Refsnyder. They also have Masataka Yoshida, Jarren Duran and rookies Wilyer Abreu and Ceddanne Rafaela. Perhaps Rafaela can start the year in Triple-A and Yoshida can move to designated hitter, but Rafaela is a highly-coveted prospect that you're going to want up at somepoint, you would think.
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