O’Neill shipped off to St. Louis
Mariners trade highly touted outfielder from Maple Ridge to Cards for pitching help
Tyler O’Neill and Stubby Clapp are together again.
O’Neill, the muscle-bound outfield prospect from Maple Ridge, had his rights traded on Friday by the Seattle Mariners to the St. Louis Cardinals in exchange for left-handed pitcher Marco Gonzales. O’Neill, 22, was packing up his gear and heading out Saturday to catch up with the Cardinals’ triple-A Pacific Coast League affiliate, the Memphis Redbirds, who are managed by Clapp, a Windsor, Ont., native.
O’Neill was a starting outfielder and Clapp a coach with the Canadian entry that won the 2015 Pan Am Games gold medal in Toronto.
O’Neill had been with Seattle’s Triple-A team, the Tacoma Rainiers, this season. They’re rivals of the Redbirds in the PCL.
“I love the guy as a coach-manager and as a person,” the 5-foot-11, 210-pound O’Neill said Saturday morning through a Twitter direct message when asked about Clapp, 44.
“I’m very excited to be playing for him.”
O’Neill admitted to being “definitely surprised” by the trade. A 2013 third-round draft pick, the former Langley Blaze star was pegged as Seattle’s No. 2 prospect to start the campaign by mlb.com and Baseball America, largely on the strength of nearly winning the double-A Southern League Triple Crown in 2016.
He hit .293 with 24 home runs and 102 runs batted in for the Jackson Generals in 130 games.
O’Neill blasted a monster homer off Los Angeles Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw in spring training and there was some buzz early on about him being a possible midseason call-up by the Mariners.
He started this season with Tacoma slowly, batting .174 with three homers and eight RBIs in 23 April games.
He had come on of late, though, hitting .326 with 13 homers and 30 RBIs in his final 24 games with the Rainiers.
Through 93 games with Tacoma, he was at .244 with 19 homers and 56 RBIs.
According to baseball-reference. com, he’s four years younger than the average position player in the PCL.
O’Neill has been slotted immediately as the No. 4 prospect with St. Louis by mlb.com behind righthander Alex Reyes, catcher Carson Kelly and righty Luke Weaver. The Cardinals might have even more outfield depth than the Mariners with the likes of Harrison Bader (No. 7 on mlb.com’s St. Louis list) at triple-A and Magneuris Sierra (No. 9) at double-A, but Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak was quoted in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Saturday as saying, “We do think this offensive profile is unique. Middle of the order potential.”
O’Neill explained: “I couldn’t be more grateful to be moved to such a high-class and respected organization.”
Seattle was openly looking for pitching help. Gonzales, 25, was slotted as Seattle’s No. 7 prospect by mlb.com. He’s only the fourth pitcher on that list, though.
A 2013 first-round draft by the Cardinals out of Gonzaga University, he was 6-4, with a 2.90 earned-run average in 11 starts with Memphis. He missed all of 2016 due to Tommy John surgery.
Memphis was continuing a series at home against the Las Vegas 51s on Saturday. The Salt Lake Bees begin a four-game set there on Tuesday. Memphis is in Tacoma, oddly enough, for four games beginning on Aug. 3.
St. Louis has another high-ranking B.C. prospect in righty reliever Rowan Wick, 24, a North Vancouver native.
The converted outfielder began the campaign with Memphis, but had some injury trouble and is currently with their double-A Texas League Springfield Cardinals.
The Mariners fan base has largely balked at the trade on social media.