MLB Rumors: 1 player each NL Central team should trade at the deadline

MLB Rumors: St. Louis Cardinals should trade Tyler O’Neill

The St. Louis Cardinals have more outfielders than any team can dream of. Lars Nootbaar, Tyler O’Neill, and Jordan Walker start from left to right (when healthy). Dylan Carlson, Alec Burleson, Brendan Donovan, and Juan Yepez are all options in the outfield as well. The Cardinals are absolutely loaded depth-wise.

When trading Harrison Bader, the Cards traded their best defensive option in center field. The next-best option is Dylan Carlson. O’Neill has been there to start this season most of the time, but he has -2 DRS in center field already. He’s a Gold Glover in left, but the Cards have better options in Nootbaar and Walker to fill those spots.

O’Neill was an MVP candidate in 2021 and followed that up with a disastrous 2022 season. He’s looking to bounce back and look more like the star he was two seasons ago, but O’Neill is already dealing with an issue with manager Oli Marmol.

Marmol called him out for lack of hustle, and O’Neill didn’t like it. This rift between the two shouldn’t be the only reason for a trade, but it certainly doesn’t help the two sides that it happened.

The Cardinals need starting pitching, and O’Neill can help them get that in a trade. They’d downgrade offensively going from O’Neill to Carlson but improve defensively and can get more in an O’Neill trade than they’d be able to for Carlson.

This combined with the bad blood between O’Neill and Marmol makes it a no-brainer for me.