Tyler O’Neill performed just one season within the American League East, however evidently it was sufficient to persuade the Baltimore Orioles to prioritize him within the 2024 offseason.
O’Neill and the Orioles agreed on a three-year, $49.5 million deal final week, sending the previous Boston Pink Sox participant south after a 31-home-run 2024 season.
The latest member of the Orioles met with the media through Zoom on Monday the place he defined how he ended up in Baltimore. O’Neill stated the Orioles made him a “precedence” and had contact with him early on within the free company course of. He added that he expects to be an on a regular basis participant, in keeping with MASN’s Roch Kubatko.
O’Neill is a two-time Gold Glove winner who has primarily performed left subject spanning his time with the St. Louis Cardinals and the Pink Sox. He additionally performed 50 video games in proper subject for Boston final yr.
O’Neill is a right-handed hitter, now added to the combo of an all-lefty Baltimore outfield, supplied the staff does not deliver again Anthony Santander. Santander, a switch-hitting energy hitter, blasted 44 house runs in 2024 and is now one of many prime outfielders available on the market with Juan Soto formally a part of the New York Mets.
In his one season with the Pink Sox, O’Neill hit .241 with an .847 OPS. It was solely the second season of his seven-year profession wherein he noticed motion in additional than 100 video games.
Camden Yards outfield wall performed a job in Tyler O’Neill’s Orioles determination
O’Neill admitted to the media that the Orioles’ determination to maneuver the outfield wall in earlier than 2025 Opening Day was a part of the staff’s gross sales pitch.
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Oriole Park at Camden Yards has turn into infamous during the last three years for the way arduous it’s to hit a ball out to left subject. That got here after the staff moved its left subject fence again in 2022 by as a lot as 26.5 toes in some locations, and made the wall six toes taller to fight a rash of house runs to that a part of the park.
The place the wall was 384 and 398 toes from house plate in 2024, it is going to now be 374 and 376 toes respectively, in keeping with MLB.com.
That is excellent news for O’Neill, who has pulled 46 of his 109 profession house runs to left. He is by no means homered in 16 profession plate appearances in Baltimore, however all of these got here after the partitions had been moved again.
O’Neill is the second signing Baltimore has made to this point this offseason. The Orioles additionally signed catcher Gary Sanchez, who also needs to admire the motion. The righty has pulled 92 of his 184 profession house runs and has homered 11 instances in Baltimore — probably the most in his profession at any opposing ballpark.
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