Cardinals: Tyler O’Neill out of excuses with arbitration drama behind him

With the drama and stress of arbitration behind him, hopefully, Tyler O’Neill takes a deep breath and returns to form as a power bat and Gold Glove outfielder.

The St. Louis Cardinals won their arbitration case with Tyler O’Neill. As a result, O’Neill will be paid $3.4 million.

O’Neill had filed at $4.15 million.

While O’Neill and his representatives with the Boras Corporation had hoped to come to a multi-year deal with the Cardinals, the two sides were unable to come to an agreement. According to Anthony Franco of MLB Trade Rumors, this could be put on hold until the coming offseason.

O’Neill told Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post Dispatch recently he hoped to move past the arbitration drama. Due to the lockout, these cases, unfortunately, seeped into the regular season. O’Neill said that he didn’t believe this was something he was carrying with him onto the field with him.

O’Neill’s slow start suggests otherwise, though.

Tyler O’Neill done with arbitration drama, time to step up for Cardinals

He is currently hitting .198/.267/.317 with only two home runs. It’s a far cry from the pace he was on last season that resulted in him hitting .286/.352/.560 with 34 home runs.

While O’Neill had been a mainstay in the third position of the lineup, Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol has attempted to provide a jolt for O’Neill and the line-up by shifting him to the fourth position or sixth position.

Last week in the final game from Kansas City, O’Neill hit from the sixth position and was able to knock a triple and a home run. That’s a good sign. Juan Yepez is playing in left field on Wednesday evening against the Baltimore Orioles while O’Neill is not in the lineup.

O’Neill is much better than he is currently showing. Hopefully, now that this is all taken care of, O’Neill can move forward, relax and prove that he is worth a multi-year deal.  O’Neill is capable of hitting much better than he has so far this season. While he has -1 defensive runs saved, O’Neill is more than capable of getting a third-consecutive Gold Glove in left field.

At the end of last season, this would have been unfathomable. He must shake it off and focus on showing that he is better, otherwise, he could, unfortunately, forget about any kind of multi-year deal with the Cardinals.

While most of the team is off to a slow start, O’Neill could provide a jolt for the team to turn things up a few notches. O’Neill resetting from the letdown of not winning this arbitration case should serve as a major incentive for him to improve and make it impossible for the Cardinals not to bring him back for multiple years.

First things first though. O’Neill must perform better than he is currently. Fans know O’Neill is more than capable of stepping up and out of this funk.