What do the St. Louis Cardinals have in Tyler O’Neill? Let’s hope they want to find out

If the St. Louis Cardinals aren’t going to add a veteran middle of the order hitter, I sure hope they use 2020 to see what they have in their young outfield corps.

I think they blew it in 2019 when they failed to give Tyler O’Neill a chance to show whether he could be an everyday player. Sure, he was hurt part of the season. But injuries are going to happen over the course of 162 games, and the powerful outfielder needs to prove that he can stay healthy enough to be a consistent contributor.

The Cardinals obviously had no interest in bringing back veteran outfielder Marcell Ozuna. Nor did they show any willingness to go out and acquire a replacement for Ozuna. That means they should have known it was a priority to find out if O’Neill could do the job. Unfortunately, O’Neill’s wrist injury coincided with Ozuna’s stay on the injured list because of broken fingers. But with Harrison Bader failing to hit all season in 2019 and Dexter Fowler’s second half flame out, there was definitely room to get O’Neill into the outfield and up to the plate on a regular basis.

As it stands, 2019 turned out to be a lost year in O’Neill’s development. While the Cardinals have had some success in developing pitchers like Jack Flaherty, Dakota Hudson and Jordan Hicks, they haven’t done as well with position players, seeing the likes of Randal Grichuk, Steven Piscotty and Bader fail to meet expectations. What do the latter three have in common? They’re guys who found themselves riding the bench for extended periods of time instead of collecting regular at bats and playing time.

O’Neill shouldn’t be such an unknown. He’s a guy who is capable of playing all three outfield positions, he can run like the wind and he’s got power to spare. The thing we need to know is if he can improve his plate discipline and cut down on his swings and misses. If he can do that, he could be a .270 hitter who cranks 30 homers and steals 15 or 20 bases a season. But, if not, the Cardinals have a big hole in the middle of their order they don’t really have another player to fill.

Cardinals wasting Adam Wainwright, Yadier Molina’s final season

Another reason it’s a shame the Cardinals have left so much to chance is that this will almost certainly be veteran hurler Adam Wainwright’s last season in the big leagues — and it could be all-world catcher Yadier Molina’s last go-round in St. Louis, too. It would’ve been nice if the Cardinals would have gone all-out to try to give two of the most special players in the history of the one of the most-storied franchises in baseball history. Now St. Louis will be tempted to put itself in the awkward position of trying to rebuild on the fly, retreating from a National League Championship Series season to try to cycle in prospects in the place of veterans.

It is going to be another lost opportunity if the Cardinals plays Fowler instead of O’Neill or fellow youngsters Lane Thomas or Dylan Carlson. Fortunately, after this season, St. Louis will shed some of the wasted money they spent on players like Brett Cecil and Mike Leake. By the time Fowler’s deal is up in two seasons, hopefully this team will know what it has in its prospects and will be prepared to invest resources to fill in the holes with real difference makers instead of spending big on mediocre talent.

Scott Wuerz

Belleville News-Democrat

Scott Wuerz has written “Cheap Seats,” a St. Louis Cardinals fan blog for the Belleville News-Democrat, since 2007. He is a former BND reporter who covered breaking news and education.