Tyler O’Neill conquered the challenge of Fenway Park’s 37-foot Green Monster last season with the Boston Red Sox, but still departed the franchise by signing a three-year deal with the Baltimore Orioles this offseason.
O’Neill led the Red Sox in home runs with 31, which included seven multi-home run performances and a few electric walk-off blasts. The 29-year-old flourished in a Red Sox uniform and quickly became manager Alex Cora’s premier source of power at the plate. Still, once O’Neill reached free agency he elected to part ways with Boston and join Baltimore — and for an interesting reason, too.
“Probably about mid-November, they put out news that they were gonna be moving the left field wall in,” O’Neill told WEEI’s Rob Bradford on Audacy’s “Baseball Isn’t Boring” podcast. “And to be honest, I don’t know if I would consider signing in Baltimore with that left field how it was the last couple of years — just for my player profile and how I hit the ball. … It was very appealing for me to be able to see that they were gonna make a proper modification to the wall.”
O’Neill added: “That was a big factor to me.”
Only six of O’Neill’s 31 home runs last season landed in center or right field, per Baseball Savant, and the difference in production between right-handed pitching and left-handed pitching is even more jarring. O’Neill batted .313/.430/.750 with 16 homers when facing southpaws at the plate and 209/.290/.403 with 15 homers against righties. Boston saw firsthand how dangerous O’Neill’s swing was at Fenway Park and will now be tasked with setting him down as he crosses American League East enemy lines.
The Red Sox have gotten started already, adding All-Star lefty Garrett Crochet to the rotation to join Lucas Giolito — back from season-ending surgery — Tanner Houck, Brayan Bello and Kutter Crawford. Boston has also remained linked to ready-to-sign pitchers such as Corbin Burnes, Walker Buehler and Jack Flaherty.
