In STL Cardinals drama, Tyler O’Neill isn’t the villain of the story

In the drama that has unfolded since Tyler O’Neill of the St. Louis Cardinals was tagged out at home plate in a Tuesday night loss to the Atlanta Braves, he has been unfairly cast as the villain.

An awkward back-and-forth between O’Neill and St. Louis Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol has been playing out in the media and the clubhouse since the moments after a seventh-inning decision gone wrong in Tuesday’s 4-1 defeat. If there is a damning indictment of any professional athlete, it’s the insinuation that he or she isn’t giving 100 percent effort. That’s exactly what Marmol has thrown at his outfielder, and O’Neill has obviously pushed back on those thoughts.

It’s a drama that could be the plot line of a movie, but it’s playing out in real life under the Gateway Arch as the Cardinals find themselves tied at the bottom of the NL Central standings as Wednesday morning dawned. Sure, it’s early, but two losses to the Braves followed by a very public spat isn’t doing the Cardinals any good as the season-opening homestead wraps up.

Why Tyler O’Neill isn’t the villain in the St. Louis Cardinals drama

At the crux of the drama is whether the 27-year-old O’Neill was running at 100 percent as he scampered home, trying to beat the throw of Atlanta outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. Coming from second base, O’Neill was out at the plate, ending the inning and a Cardinals comeback threat.

If you watch the video, you’ll see where the question of effort comes into play as O’Neill seems to look back at the throw rather than being focused on getting to home.

There are, however, other circumstances to keep in mind here. O’Neill’s sprint speed for 2023 ranks in the 79th percentile according to Baseball Savant. At 27.8 feet per second, that’s almost two seconds slower than previous years when O’Neill ranked in the 97th and 98th percentile. Part of the slowdown has been a focus O’Neill has admitted to not once again aggravate a hamstring injury that kept him out for part of the 2022 campaign. Add in the rain that was coming down as O’Neill rounded third base and it’s a recipe for running at a different speed than he might have a year or two ago.

“I was trying to take a tight turn,” O’Neill said in this MLB.com article. “I’ve been working a lot on different run-form mechanics and stuff here in St. Louis that puts me in a better position for longevity. So, maybe there was a little too much thought process in the play from me instead of just going and getting them — as I usually would. So, it’s finding that happy medium and learning from the experience, for sure.”

Marmol acknowledged he knew about O’Neill’s potential concern about running bases, saying in this interview, “I understand it… We have 26 guys that are eager and hungry to be out there every day. And we’re going to make sure that that’s the standard. The last thing you want to do in competition is open up a window. But guys are hungry, and they’re going to get after it. Yesterday was an example of a lack of effort in my opinion. It was addressed and we’re going to move on.”

All of that being said, perhaps knowing the conditions and O’Neill’s concern, the stop sign should have been on at third base. Perhaps knowing that Acuña had the strong throwing arm in the league last season should have been another reason to keep O’Neill at third. Perhaps knowing the top of the lineup was coming to the plate had O’Neill been held at third would have been another consideration.

There are plenty of reasons why the play was botched from a Cardinals perspective besides O’Neill’s running. Maybe, just maybe, if a player is saying he’s giving 100 percent and it still results in a failure, it’s not the player’s fault.

So is O’Neill the villain of this drama? Hardly. The worst villain of all is the decision to let this tiff go public.