Would the Cardinals Try to Quickly Unload Tyler O’Neill for Pitching After This Week’s Drama?

After being publicly called out by his manager and then benched, St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Tyler O’Neill was not exactly thrilled with how things have played out this week.

It makes you wonder where the relationship with his manager will stand tomorrow when the Cardinals open up a new series against the Brewers.

“I went in there to see what he had to say,” O’Neill later followed up about his experience after the game in question, per The Athletic. “I didn’t know that I was going to be ambushed in here by a bunch of cameras and media. These kinds of conversations should be in-house and dealt with in-house. Obviously, we see the recoil that’s going on and the negative atmosphere that is created. I think it could’ve been handled a little differently. Obviously, he thinks that I should’ve handled my play a little differently, but I’m a hard-nosed player. I got to the big leagues playing my a– off and that’s who I am. It’s not something that should be de-characterized for me.”

Not that Marmol was going to back down from his public criticism of O’Neill.

“Let’s keep it super simple,” Marmol said, again per The Athletic. “There’s going to be a style of play that we are known for. It’s going to involve effort and it’s going to involve being relentless. It’s going to involve being smart. We’re going to hold guys to that because that’s how you sustain being good for a long time. There’s a lot of good players in that clubhouse, and down below, and I love competition. And the last thing you want to do when you’re in competition is open up a window.”

Open up a window, eh? As in, what if O’Neill lost playing time permanently? Or, what if there were a rare early-season trade?

Well, Ken Rosenthal wrote about exactly that today, wondering if the Cardinals – who declined to trade O’Neill this offseason when his value may have been down – will now aggressively pursue a deal for a pitcher.

With an outfield that can already feature all of Jordan Walker, Lars Nootbaar, Dylan Carlson, Alec Burleson, and Juan Yepez, there is an argument that O’Neill is redundant anyway.

But now that this little spat has happened, and with O’Neill trying to re-establish value after last year’s injuries, I wouldn’t think the Cardinals could get much for him. So maybe I hope they do trade him now? Then again, I think the Cardinals are desperately in need of some pitching depth, so I’m not exactly eager to see them get any, even if at the cost of O’Neill’s depressed value.

The Cardinals have an off-day today to work the phones.