MLB free agency: Tyler O’Neill to join Orioles on three-year, $49.5 million deal

Free-agent outfielder/designated hitter Tyler O’Neill has agreed to a three-year, $49.5 million contract with the Orioles, the team announced Tuesday. The deal reportedly includes an opt-out after 2025.

O’Neill will ostensibly serve as fellow free agent Anthony Santander’s replacement and join an outfield depth chart that includes Cedric Mullins, Colton Cowser, and Heston Kjerstad. Entering the offseason, CBS Sports ranked O’Neill as the 31st best free agent available this winter, writing the following:

O’Neill has, over the course of his big-league career, garnered a reputation for being an underperformer. The reasoning for that perception is straightforward. He’s always been blessed with plus physicality: the strength and bat speed to hit the ball hard, the quick-twitch fibers to run fast (though he’s started to slow down as he nears his 30s), and so on. Unfortunately, he’s rarely had the statistical output to match. There have been a few exceptions, however, including this most recent season, when O’Neill posted a 132 OPS+ by homering 31 times in 113 games. His hyper-pull approach isn’t for everyone, and he often hits the ball at such lofty trajectories that he’s a perpetual candidate to post a poor batting average. And yet, we think the biggest reservation teams might have with him concerns his durability: he’s appeared in 100 or more games just twice in seven years. Players don’t tend to get healthier as they age, suggesting he’s always going to necessitate his employer having a satisfactory Plan B at the ready. Will that greatly impact his next deal? Maybe not, but it could impact where he falls on preference lists. 

O’Neill, 29, is coming off a huge power season. In only 411 at-bats across 113 games with the Red Sox in 2024, he hit 31 home runs and slugged .511. Interestingly, this turned out to be a relatively one-dimensional season for O’Neill, as he hit .241 with a .336 on-base percentage while striking out 159 times against 53 walks. He only doubled 18 times and had 61 RBI and 74 runs, good for 2.7 WAR. The walk rate was actually decent, but most of his value was home runs. 

Still, it’s quite a skill. He’s now topped 30 home runs in the only two seasons in which he’s appeared in at least 100 games. Injuries limited O’Neill a bit last season, as a concussion, knee injury and leg infection landed him on the injured list three times. 

He didn’t platoon, as the righty-swinging O’Neill faced right-handed pitching more than lefties, but he absolutely demolished left-handers last season, slashing .313/.430/.750 with 16 home runs in 128 at-bats. For those curious, O’Neill’s stats weren’t inflated by Fenway Park, either: he actually was 38 points better in batting average and 72 better in OPS on the road. 

The Orioles went 91-71 last season, good for second place in the American League East. With arguably one of the strongest cores in baseball, they’ll now look to get over the hump and play deeper into the postseason after getting swept out of the playoffs for the second straight year in 2024.