Rumor: Tyler O'Neill & Red Sox Have "Mutual Interest" In Returning For 2025

[Brock Beauchamp]

Rob Bradford of WEEI tweeted that right-handed slugger Tyler O'Neill talked to Red Sox CBO Craig Breslow and that there is "definitely mutual interest" in returning for the 2025 season and beyond.

The 29-year-old Canadian outfielder earned $5.85 million playing with the Sox in 2024, slugged 31 home runs, and had his best offensive season since 2021 with the St. Louis Cardinals. He also filled an important niche for the left-hand-dominant Red Sox, posting a 1.180 OPS against left-handed pitching.

Any contract to O'Neill will require 3+ years at a rather high annual rate. What would you pay to retain the not-yet-30 outfielder?

View full rumor

[moonslav59]

I doubt we bring him back, despite the need for a big RHB. 
if we do, Abreu is a sure goner. (he might be anyway.)

[mvp 78]

Last year, Soler and Gurriel got 3/42. That's probably about what O'Neilll should get considering his injury history and how the Sox would play him going forward. 

[mvp 78]

1 minute ago, moonslav59 said:

I doubt we bring him back, despite the need for a big RHB. 
if we do, Abreu is a sure goner. (he might be anyway.)

Abreu and O'Neilll are perfect platoon partners. 

[moonslav59]

4 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Abreu and O'Neilll are perfect platoon partners. 

Ref is not retiring. We have a top 25 batter v LHPs already

[mvp 78]

7 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Ref is not retiring. We have a top 25 batter v LHPs already

Ref can't play OF. He's really DH only. 

Did you discuss his life decision with him directly? 

[mvp 78]

Also, do they only need one RHB now? That's a surprise to me!

[moonslav59]

3 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Ref can't play OF. He's really DH only. 

Did you discuss his life decision with him directly? 

He announced he is coming back and maybe for 2 more years. 
O’Neill is not a plus defender, either. Ref  could play LF vs LHPs with Duran moving to CF or RF.

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

35 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Last year, Soler and Gurriel got 3/42. That's probably about what O'Neilll should get considering his injury history and how the Sox would play him going forward. 

Refsnyder drove in 29 baserunners who weren't himself, with a 25% K-rate.

O'Neill drove in 30 baserunners who weren't himself, with a 33.6% K-rate.

Ref's team option is for $2 million... so why would I want to pay T.O. another $40 million?

Campbell -- who is comfortable playing outfield -- might be a minimum-wage O'Neill replacement... that is, if Grissom wins the second-base job.

Breslow has already said the Red Sox have too many lefty batters and wants to balance the batting order. If both Grissom and Campbell make the club, Brez doesn't have to spend any money to do that...

,,, then he could use the savings for more (I didn't say real) pitching....

[mvp 78]

3 minutes ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

Refsnyder drove in 29 baserunners who weren't himself, with a 25% K-rate.

O'Neill drove in 30 baserunners who weren't himself, with a 33.6% K-rate.

Ref's team option is for $2 million... so why would I want to pay T.O. another $40 million?

Campbell -- who is comfortable playing outfield -- might be a minimum-wage O'Neill replacement... that is, if Grissom wins the second-base job.

Breslow has already said the Red Sox have too many lefty batters and wants to balance the batting order. If both Grissom and Campbell make the club, Brez doesn't have to spend any money to do that...

,,, then he could use the savings for more (I didn't say real) pitching....

RBI stats aren't a skill.

O'Neilll and Refsnyder's contracts are completely independent of each other and this roster could use both of them. If they need to balance the batting order, adding O'Neilll helps with that.

They aren't going to add a RHB at 3B or 1B. The only place to add is DH/MIF/OF. Mayer, Teel and Anthony are all LHB so their callups will only exacerbate the problem. If Campbell is called up, he's likely the 2B as his defense is much better than Grissom. If I was the Sox, I'd move Grissom in a trade this offseason. No matter what Grissom does in Boston, he'll always be seen as the Sale guy. It's lose/lose for him.

[moonslav59]

I think we trade Abreu and add Anthony to the OF. This keeps the unbalance the same, except. Anthony likely hits lefties better than Abreu.

i think we trade DHam and go with Grissom and Campbell at2B. That adds a righty bat. 
 

I think we bank on a healthy Story to take up the RHB slack, enough to lessen the unbalanced nature of our 13 by just enough.

Ref could play some OF or DH v LHPs and should start every game vs lefties.

[mvp 78]

9 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

I think we trade Abreu and add Anthony to the OF. This keeps the unbalance the same, except. Anthony likely hits lefties better than Abreu.

i think we trade DHam and go with Grissom and Campbell at2B. That adds a righty bat. 
 

I think we bank on a healthy Story to take up the RHB slack, enough to lessen the unbalanced nature of our 13 by just enough.

Ref could play some OF or DH v LHPs and should start every game vs lefties.

Anthony hasn't shown a split issue and seems to be a fulltime player at some point. Abreu isn't. 

If they are just running with Duran/Rafaela/Anthony, then it would push O'Neilll to a DH platoon with Masa. Masa didn't hit LHP very well this year. Is the Soler/Gurriel contract the right amount for a platoon guy? Refsnyder is still cheap enough to keep onboard, but you run out of roster space at some point. However, Refsnyder fought through injuries this year and O'Neilll has a long injury history and maybe you need both of them to get through a season? 

[notin]

1 hour ago, mvp 78 said:

Abreu and O'Neilll are perfect platoon partners. 

If the Sox pass on O’Neill, Randal Grichuk (and his .900 OPS vs LHP last year) makes for a good RHH platoon option.  I believe his defensive metrics also exceeded O’Neill’s as well…

[mvp 78]

1 minute ago, notin said:

If the Sox pass on O’Neill, Randal Grichuk (and his .900 OPS vs LHP last year) makes for a good RHH platoon option.  I believe his defensive metrics also exceeded O’Neill’s as well…

Teams just keep putting him in CF for some unknown reason. He's an adequate corner OF. As long as they address the lack of RHB somewhere, I'm happy. It doesn't have to be O'Neilll, but it probably has to be more than one guy. 

[notin]

3 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Teams just keep putting him in CF for some unknown reason. He's an adequate corner OF. As long as they address the lack of RHB somewhere, I'm happy. It doesn't have to be O'Neilll, but it probably has to be more than one guy. 

Story, Grissom/Campbell, Refsnyder and O’Neill/Grichuk/whoever…

[mvp 78]

Just now, notin said:

Story, Grissom/Campbell, Refsnyder and O’Neill/Grichuk/whoever…

Not sure Grissom would have much of a positive impact. Refsnyder and O'Neill were already on the roster. I don't know what to say about Story's offense anymore. He just hasn't been healthy enough to evaluate. 

[BaseballGuru]

On 9/30/2024 at 11:27 AM, moonslav59 said:

He announced he is coming back and maybe for 2 more years. 
O’Neill is not a plus defender, either. Ref  could play LF vs LHPs with Duran moving to CF or RF.

O'Neil is a 2x Gold.Glove winner he's an lite defender

[BaseballGuru]

I'd love to add O'Neil for 3 years! He's exactly what we need, Let Yoshida and Refsnyder go or be traded sign O'Neil and bring up Anthony to replace them.  The 5 OF are O'Neil, Duran, Rafaela, Abreu & Anthony.  We still have Bleis, Montgomery, Campbell as depth

[Brock Beauchamp]

3 hours ago, BaseballGuru said:

I'd love to add O'Neil for 3 years! He's exactly what we need, Let Yoshida and Refsnyder go or be traded sign O'Neil and bring up Anthony to replace them.  The 5 OF are O'Neil, Duran, Rafaela, Abreu & Anthony.  We still have Bleis, Montgomery, Campbell as depth

Welcome to Talk Sox!

[moonslav59]

5 hours ago, BaseballGuru said:

O'Neil is a 2x Gold.Glove winner he's an lite defender

He WAS "elite. He's not anymore.  

DRS" +9 in '20 and +11 in '21, then +1, -1, +1

OAA: +4, +4, 2, 0 -3

2020-2021: +20 DRS, +7 OAA, +9.9 UZR/150

2022-2024: +1 DRS (not elite) -2 OAA (negative) +0.3 UZR/150 (not elite)

The 3 year sample size is large enough to see that he is NO LONGER elite. He's barely plus. (2023-2024 is 0 DRS and -4 OAA)