Red Sox add experienced outfielder with latest trade
The Boston Red Sox began the week by trading away an outfielder on Tuesday. On Friday, they wrapped up the week by trading for one.
According to multiple reports, the Red Sox have acquired outfielder Tyler O’Neill from the St. Louis Cardinals. In return, the Sox are sending pitchers Nick Robertson and Victor Santos back to St. Louis.
O’Neill, 28, spent his first six seasons in the Majors with the Cardinals. Last season, O’Neill slashed .231/.312/.403 with nine home runs and 21 runs driven in 72 games, missing two months with a back injury.
That wasn’t the first time O’Neill missed extended time on the IL. In his six MLB seasons he’s played over 100 games just once, posting a career year in 2021. That season he appeared in 138 games and slashed .286/.352/.560 with 34 home runs and 80 RBIs. With that performance the righty finished eighth in NL MVP voting and won his second of two Gold Glove Awards.
According to Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic, the Red Sox plan to play O’Neill at all three outfield positions. They had a hole in their outfield rotation after trading Alex Verdugo to the Yankees on Tuesday.
The Red Sox will need to come to an arbitration agreement with O’Neill before the start of the season. He’ll be an unrestricted free agent after the 2024 season.
In terms of the players they gave up, Robertson made his MLB debut last year with the Dodgers before joining the Red Sox mid-season. In 18 total appearances the 25-year-old righty had a 6.04 ERA in 22.1 innings. Santos, 23, has been pitching in the minors since 2017 but missed all of last season due to injury.
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Red Sox make trade with Mets, lose two players in Rule 5 Draft
Boston Red Sox pitching prospect Shane Drohan throws a pitch during his Worcester Red Sox debut on Thursday at Polar Park. (Photo Credit: USA TODAY Sports.)
Drafted with a fifth-round pick (No. 148 overall) in 2020, the 6-foot-3 Drohan spent three seasons in Boston’s minor-league system after a three-year collegiate career at Florida State.
In action for 77 minor-league games over that three-season run in the Boston organization, Drohan posted a 24-19 record, 4.32 ERA, and fanned 372 batters over 341.1 innings of work.
Drohan’s minor-league accolades over that run included Eastern League Pitcher of the Month honors in Apr. 2023, a Futures Game selection in 2023, and ‘MILB.com Organizational All-Star’ nods in both 2021 and 2022.
Drohan was the No. 19 ranked prospect in the Sox pipeline, according to MLB dot com. He was also the fourth player taken in this year’s Rule 5 Draft.
Apr 29, 2021; Arlington, Texas, USA; A view of the Boston Red Sox logo and a field bag during batting practice before the game between the Texas Rangers and the Boston Red Sox at Globe Life Field. (Jerome Miron/USA TODAY Sports)
Elsewhere in the Rule 5 Draft, the Red Sox suffered another loss, this time courtesy of St. Louis, as the Cardinals nabbed right-handed pitcher Ryan Fernandez from the club.
The 25-year-old Fernandez had himself a busy 2023 campaign, with stops in Single-A Salem, Double-A Portland, and Triple-A Worcester, and 42 appearances in all over that three-stop season.
Fernandez was certainly at his best in Portland, too, with a 2-1 record, 1.77 ERA, 26 strikeouts, and batters held to a .192 batting average in 20.1 innings with the Sea Dogs. That success did not follow Fernandez to Worcester, though, with the Florida-born reliever tagged for 38 hits, 21 earned runs and a 6.16 ERA in 26 appearances out of the Woo Sox bullpen.
Fernandez, a 26th-round pick of the club back in 2018, had been in the club’s minor-league ranks for five seasons in total prior to his move to the Cardinals.
A view of the Boston Red Sox logo outside Fenway Park on May 20, 2020. (Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
But with two departures from the organization’s pitching depth chart, Breslow made a move to bolster the in-house competition, with the team adding Justin Slaten via trade with the Mets after New York selected Slaten from the Rangers with a Rule 5 selection.
Boston’s move for Slaten came with lefty Ryan Ammons, along with cash considerations, sent to the Mets. Ammons was selected with a 10th-round pick in the 2023 MLB Draft.
Mar 17, 2017; Fort Myers, FL, USA; A view of the Grapefruit League logo on official Rawlings baseball at JetBlue Park. The Astros won 6-2. (Aaron Doster/USA TODAY Sports)
The Red Sox also took some losses in the Minor League phase of the 2023 Rule 5 Draft.
In the first round alone, the Red Sox lost four players in total between pitchers Jose Ramirez and Railin Perez, infielder Johnfrank Salazar, and outfielder Alexis Hernandez.
Ramirez went to the White Sox and departs the Red Sox organization after making 20 starts for Single-A Salem in 2023. Perez, meanwhile, will join the Astros organization after putting up a 3.70 ERA and 69 strikeouts in 56 innings with Salem. Salazar hit .286, along 10 home runs, 83 RBIs, and a .776 OPS in 160 games over three seasons in Boston’s minor-league system, and will be moving to the Cards’ pipeline. Hernandez, who will join the Blue Jays’ farm, hit .267 with three home runs in 46 minor-league games last year.
Boston’s first-round pick of the minor league portion did see them rob their rivals of a catcher, with Michael Gasper selected from the Yankees’ minor-league system. The switch-hitting catcher is a Merrimack, NH native, and is coming off a 2023 season that featured a .246 average, seven home runs, 28 RBIs, and 10 stolen bases in 74 games split between Double-A and Triple-A.
Other losses from the Boston pipeline included pitchers Ryan Miller (to the Angels) in round two, infielder Ryan Fitzgerald (to the Royals) in round three, and pitcher Brock Bell (to the Reds) in the fourth round.
