Amongst a roster of underperforming hitters, Tyler O’Neill‘s poor season has managed to stand out. Brought in prior to the 2025 campaign to be a veteran power threat, the now-30-year-old has spent most of his Orioles stint either on the IL or scuffling at the plate. For an Orioles team that needs to do whatever it can to win games, it’s tough to justify a place in the lineup for the high-priced outfielder.
As of this writing, O’Neill is in the midst of an 0-for-16 stretch that has brought his season
batting line down to .146/.262/.225 with two home runs, seven RBI, 12 walks, and 25 strikeouts. His 47 wRC+ is the worst on the team, and is down near the bottom of the entire league.
The first month of the season wasn’t great for O’Neill. He had a .640 OPS and went on the IL for a bit. But that was world’s better than the .360 OPS he has so far in May.
And forget about him being a viable option against left-handed pitching. That has been a disaster as well with O’Neill hitting .051./.140/.051 against southpaws this season. But he has been decent against righties (.220/.350/.710), so maybe there is a path for him as a reverse splits option? The Orioles don’t seem to think so. They pinch hit him for Colton Cowser on Sunday evening to face a lefty out of Detroit’s bullpen. O’Neill struck out.
Now, in analyzing O’Neill this year you have to consider his health. He went on the IL in mid-April with a concussion, suffered after fainting while “extremely dehydrated” on an off day. Prior to the concussion, O’Neill owned a respectable, albeit underwhelming, line of .241/.353/.345 (.698 OPS). Since being activated on April 25, he is hitting .100/.217/.167. It may not be as simple as saying that the concussion is why O’Neill has performed so poorly, but it probably hasn’t helped.
We do know that the effects of a concussion can linger. Heston Kjerstad suffered a concussion in July of 2024. It took months for him to even get back on the field, and it seemed like he was still dealing with the effects for much of 2025, though the Orioles were not transparent about the specifics of Kjerstad’s health. Back in 2023, a bout with vertigo cost Ryan Mountcastle a month of games, and he needed more than two weeks of minor league rehab in order to get back to game shape. Vertigo and concussions are not the same diagnosis, but they can be related.
There has not been reporting that indicates O’Neill is still battling his concussion in any way. But we do know it is his second concussion as a big leaguer, the other coming back in 2023. Usually your brain needs longer to recovery from subsequent injuries. And while he did miss more than two weeks of action, he did not go down to the minors for any rehab games. It would be normal and understandable if he was still trying to get himself right.
Now, we must also admit that O’Neill’s first season in Baltimore was disappointing too. He hit .199/.292/.392 a season ago and played in just 54 games due to multiple IL stints. Those injuries were neck inflammation, left shoulder impingement, and right wrist inflammation.
And it’s not as if O’Neill has been the most dependable player in his career. He’s been worth -0.6 bWAR this season, was worth -0.6 bWAR last year, and accumulated just 0.3 bWAR in 2023. He was solid for Boston in 2024, producing 2.9 bWAR, which earned him his current contract with the Orioles. Right now, that looks like an anomaly that the Orioles bought high on, and it is entirely possible that he just isn’t very good anymore.
That contract pays O’Neill $16.5 million per year for three years. It runs through the end of 2027. According to Spotrac, he is the third-highest paid player on the Orioles roster after Pete Alonso ($31 million) and Chris Bassitt ($18.5 million).
The combination of a big salary and poor results has fans clamoring for O’Neill to be released. That ire is understandable, but unless O’Neill is also a locker room liability (it doesn’t seem that he is), it probably isn’t happening in-season.
The Orioles other outfield options aren’t great. Dylan Beavers has no timeframe for his return from a right oblique strain he suffered a couple of weeks ago. Those tend to linger. Tommy Pham, now 38 years old, was signed to a minor league deal last week. That feels like an indictment of their confidence in the likes of Ryan Noda, Johnathan Rodriguez, or Jud Fabian to come up an fill the need. Reed Trimble is back on the IL for the second time this season and has played just three games at Triple-A in 2026. Kjerstad is rehabbing in Norfolk, but has just a .630 OPS down there, though he feels like the most logical replacement.
Right now, the Orioles must just feel like O’Neill’s potential to rebound and be at least close to league average is better that what most other internal options can provide. That isn’t a crazy perspective to take, even if you may disagree with the conclusion. Also, releasing O’Neill is final. If you let him go, he won’t be coming back. Whereas other members of the big league squad with minor league options could be yo-yo’ed back and forth without anything being lost.
O’Neill’s long-term standing with the organization does feel shaky though. Two consecutive, injury-riddled, poor seasons feels like the type of player to get the boot next offseason. Waiting until the winter to pull the trigger on such a move is just easier. It would give the team time to sort out their plans on the grass, and they would also only be swallowing one season of dead salary rather than a year and a half. That sounds trivial, but teams often care about the optics and financials of these moves.
So, what can be done in the meantime? The Orioles need to put their best foot forward. This version of O’Neill does not provide that, at least not on a regular basis. But releasing him right now seems unlikely. If it’s possible, a return to the IL followed by a week or two in Norfolk could be best for everyone. It would relieve some pressure on O’Neill and give the Orioles room to bring up someone else that might have a chance to be a net positive in the short term.
