St. Louis Cardinals: Tyler O’Neill should teach us something

The evolution of the Tyler O’Neill situation since his acquisition from Seattle has been one full of bumps and unexpected stops, but the flourishing that has come from it should teach the St. Louis Cardinals an important lesson.

Tyler O’Neill has been an enigmatic case in the eyes of St. Louis Cardinals, with people drawing their conclusions relatively early in his career. But did he deserve it? Probably not.

You might as well have just given the “AAAA” nickname to O’Neill outright, because that’s all St. Louis Cardinals fans could say about him until just recently.

However, he has quickly shed that label with effective at-bats and crushing power since the All-Star Break, slashing .300/.329/.843, and being by far the team’s best hitter at the time

Before this little outburst though, fans were thinking about possibly trading O’Neill or sending him back down to AAA. The first point is something I’ll get back to later, but the idea to demote him really bugs me.

So the question is this: if Tyler O’Neill already dominates AAA pitching, how is he going to get better in AAA?

Simple answer: he won’t.

What Tyler O’Neill needed and still needs to be able to do is to see pitches at the major league level, right? So what is going to help O’Neill on that road? How about being given the opportunity to see pitches at the Major League level?

Before the All Star break, Tyler O’Neill had 190 PA’s in his major league career. For context, Greg Garcia had 208 PA’s last season, Dexter Fowler had 289 PA’s in 2018. Hell, O’Neill got the same number of PA’s in 2018 as Francisco freakin’ Pena.

Basically, what I’m saying is, O’Neill needed a chance. A chance to grow. A chance to learn. A chance to play, and play consistently. We have now seen the rewards it can reap internally, just as we have seen it happen externally.

The main example of this is one of the most recent: the Luke Voit case. There are caveats in these situations, like Gallegos playing well to offset the loss, but the fact is some of these younger guys who may have the talent really make a difference just need a chance to work through their struggles.

The lack of reception to this idea was rather interesting to me, simply because of how down people were on the team. I feel like I have been having to remind people of the high expectations that were placed on the team at the beginning of the season because it seemed like people had given up on the team competing as is.

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So if you don’t really think the team can make any noise, why are younger players struggling that big of a deal? If the team isn’t ready to win, why not let young players play and grow so that the team will have better depth or more trade value if and when that time comes?

Even now, with the team in first place in the division, it still shouldn’t be something people are adverse to. Why, you may ask? Well, while the St. Louis Cardinals are doing well in the standings, is this team playing well enough to make some noise?

With no one who is currently healthy on the team sporting a .800 OPS except for Paul DeJong at .802, nor a starter with a sub 3.50 ERA, it’s hard to say that this team is really ready to make the next step. The injuries play a part in it, but as things stand, there aren’t a great deal of St. Louis Cardinals fans who think this group can actually win a World Series the way they are playing.

If young guys becomes assets, it just makes the team that much stronger, and could be the key factor in the St. Louis Cardinals competing for a World Series. Whether that young guy becomes a superstar to carry a team without having to put the big bucks forward or the complimentary piece that puts the team over the edge, allowing young guys to develop is important, and something the St. Louis Cardinals need to be better about in the future.

The St. Louis Cardinals moved Tyler O’Neill down in the lineup after hitting a rough patch over the past few games, instead of benching him entirely. Hopefully, this is proof that the St. Louis Cardinals have learned to let the kids play.