Red Sox lose two-time Gold Glove winner to injury

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.

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 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. Although 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 Wednesday, as relayed by Ian Browne of MLB.com. 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.