With the Major League Baseball Winter Meetings about to kick off in Dallas, Texas, the hot stove got turned up high on Saturday with a couple of big free agent signings announced. After the San Francisco Giants landed shortstop Willy Adames, which might have an impact on the Philadelphia Phillies offseason plans for Alec Bohm, the Baltimore Orioles made a move to ink outfielder Tyler O'Neill.
O'Neill agreed to a three-year, $49.5 million contract, with an opt-out after next season, to stay in the AL East after the long-time St. Louis Cardinal spent 2024 in Boston.
Tyler O’Neill to Baltimore. 3/49.5M. opt out after 2025.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) December 7, 2024
Seeing the 29-year-old come off the board right after Adames signals that teams not involved with Juan Soto are willing to make moves before the record-setting contract is announced sometime this weekend or during the Winter Meetings this week. The Phillies, however, still have yet to make a move to shore up their outfield despite not being involved in the wild Soto sweepstakes.
Phillies' missed opportunity with Orioles' Tyler O'Neill signing offers silver lining
O'Neill might not have been the ideal candidate the front office is looking for in a corner outfielder, but he still represents a missed opportunity. On the one hand, he has a high strikeout rate, something this Phillies lineup certainly doesn't need more of. On the other hand, he produces when he's on the field, as he showed in his 113 games this past season.
The former third-round pick slashed .241/.336/.511, his .847 OPS good for a 132 OPS+, with 31 home runs in just 473 plate appearances.
While we don't know if the Phillies were involved with O'Neill's camp, his decision to sign in Baltimore does offer another avenue of opportunity for the Phillies. The signing indicates that former Orioles masher Anthony Santander won't return to Camden Yards this winter, taking one more suitor off the table.
As one of the top outfielders on the free agent market after Soto, Santander will be heavily coveted by the teams that don't land Soto. Even with plenty of competition, the Phillies should be in on Santander this week.
The 30-year-old just put up a career-best 3.3 fWAR season, slashing .235/.308/.506 with 44 home runs and 102 RBI in 155 games. He has proven durable, playing more than 150 games in each of the past three seasons.
With a better-than-league-average strikeout rate (19.4 percent) and a healthy fly ball rate (54.8 percent) in 2024, he'd love hitting in Citizens Bank Park. As a switch-hitter, he would remedy the Phillies' headache of trying to play the matchup game with Brandon Marsh and Johan Rojas. Santander posted a .793 OPS versus left-handers and an .822 against righties this past season.
The Phillies outfield for 2025 is still up in the air, and it remains to be seen whether the front office will be willing to hand out a nine-figure deal over five years. But if they want to shake things up, Santander is a great place to start.