At the end of last season, both Tyler O’Neill and Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow expressed interest in the possibility of O’Neill returning to Boston on a new contract. That possibility is now officially off the board after O’Neill signed a three-year, $49.5MM deal with the Orioles yesterday, and as per WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford (Bluesky link), the Sox “were not very aggressive” in their attempts to re-sign the outfielder. Boston’s pursuit of Juan Soto simply took precedence, the Boston Globe’s Alex Speier writes, as since the Red Sox are one of the teams still waiting on Soto to make his decision, the Sox didn’t make O’Neill any offers.
More from around the AL East…
- Speaking of the O’Neill signing, the move likely closes the door on the possibility of Randal Grichuk landing in Baltimore, as MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand (X link) writes that the Orioles had interest in Grichuk’s services. Grichuk would’ve been more of a clear-cut platoon player, but like O’Neill, is a right-handed bat who crushes left-handed pitching. This skillset was on full display with the Diamondbacks in 2024, when Grichuk hit .319/.386/.528 in 184 PA against southpaws. Grichuk turned down a $6MM mutual option for 2025 to enter free agency, and he figures to score a solid contract based on his lefty-mashing offense and his ability to at least passably play all three outfield positions.
- The Blue Jays had interest in Clay Holmes before Holmes signed with the Mets earlier this week, according to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon. Toronto was looking at Holmes just as a reliever, which isn’t surprising given how fixing the bullpen is one of the Jays’ top offseason priorities. Holmes hasn’t started a game since his rookie year in 2018, but he’ll move back into a starting role with the Mets on his new three-year, $38MM contract.
- By a 4-3 vote on Thursday, the St. Petersburg city council approved a deal to issue bonds to help cover some of the city’s contribution to the Rays’ new ballpark project. Colleen Wright of the Tampa Bay Times (separate links) looks at both Thursday’s decision and the next step in the process, which is a Pinellas County Commission meeting on December 17 to approve the bonds and $312.5MM in tourism taxes towards the ballpark project. It isn’t yet clear how the county commission will vote, and even in the event of a yes vote, the delays in these votes have already led the Rays to threaten to abandon the deal altogether and leave the Tampa/St. Pete area, as the team says it isn’t feasible for the ballpark’s opening to be put off until 2029. The initial plan saw the new ballpark set to be ready by Opening Day 2028, but Hurricane Milton’s destruction of the Tropicana Field roof has left the Rays in a temporary home of George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa in 2025, and uncertain about their location for at least the 2026-27 seasons.
Plenty of former closers who had bad years last year on the market, including the Jays’ former closer, so I’m not too bent out of shape on missing out on Holmes.
I knew the Pirates would miss out on TON, Grichuk seems like a good fit in RF and shouldn’t cost too much, maybe 2/$20-24
Yikes! That’s a huge overpayment for Grichuk. Especially coming from a team that doesn’t have a big wallet.
I think he made only 1.5M last year for Arizona and played mostly against lefties.
He just turned down $6M. Presumably he knows he can do better than that.
Arizona reminded me of the rays with how much they were platooning
Joc Pederson was hitting like an MVP but still getting subbed out after 2-3 at bats
Hope it’s less, but Pirates will have to overpay to some degree to bring in a veteran. He’ll get $6-8 million just to sit on a big spenders bench and play part time. He’s a career 241 hitter against righties which is fine with me.
We need a left handed hitting outfielder
1090198, Reynolds is a switch hitter and Cruz is left handed
At thos point if I were the Rays Id just play 1 yr at that spring training facility. Id renovate the Trop to an outdoor stadium for 2-3yrs dont put money into roof just play outdoors. Just hope for no rainouts. Than move to the new ballpark
All teams interested in Soto are held hostage until he makes a decision. Baltimore got a nice OF because they have no interest in Soto or bringing back Santander.
“held hostage” is such an over-the-top phrase for this situation. More like they’re “on hold” waiting for a customer service agent.
Sox could have suggested he wait if there was a real interest. Good for O’Neill to jump on the offer, especially with the opt out. Sox may have been fortunate to get the production they got given his health issues. That said, if he stays healthy, he can be a monster against lefties.
The Mets have signed numerous players while waiting on Soto.
so have the Red Sox. Neither though has signed an outfielder.
The Mets don’t need an outfielder unless it’s Soto.
Except Santander is a far better asset than O’Neill.
cost will be substantially more both in AAV and years
But it’s 100% their own doing! Teams are going to find out the hard way imho.
There is more than just roof damage. The “designers” of the stadium didn’t have drainage installed since it was to be a closed roof facility. The roof never was retractable. So when roof comes off the flooding started. Sure there is a lot of concrete that’s still good. The actual structure is probably fine. It’s just every thing inside that is ruined and even with an open roof the entire inside of the facility needs rebuilding along with drainage being installed. It’s probably going to be demolished. The team has decisions to make. Is there a major market that has a suitable stadium ready or one that can be made ready in 16 months?
Hope for no rain outs in the bay area ?? I think we’re better off hoping for less than half of the games being canceled.
Nothing inside the Trop is built to withstand the elements. Converting the Trop to an outdoor stadium might cost more than just repairing the damage.
If Im owner of Rays I just scrap deal at this point and move Team to Montreal with new Stadium deal in hand
What Montreal stadium deal?
No way Montreal is paying for a new stadium. They are currently repairing their own stadium roof – on the stadium built in 1978. No MLB team would want that facility.
No one wanted to go to key arena but once it got renovated now there’s going to be an nba team there within 5 years
Sorry Ducey the big O was built in 1967 for the Olympics not 1978
Sorry Jaysfan. Olympic Stadium was built for the 1976 Olympics and was unfinished by the time of the games.
Now I’m thinking 1967 was a mistype on your part. Apologies.
Why would an owner want to move into Canada when there’s much better markets in the US available? Montreal already failed having a team.
It’s been a long time and Toronto becoming a “national” team suggests it could work now.
Washington DC failed at having a team twice before getting the Nationals. NY lost two teams before getting the Mets as an expansion team.
It really only worked in DC because the Orioles had stunk for a long time.
shapiro done anything yet ?
He’s shown interest in Yoan Moncada. So that’s… something.
There’s a concept of a plan
Red Sox “mutual interest” in Tyler O’Neill was artificial. The Sox have to find roster sports for low cost superstars. No room for Tyler McRenfroe’s Strikeout Show.
Not all prospects turn out to be superstars. I’ll gladly take O’Neil and that OPS vs lefties. Good luck to the Sox
Red Sox will do nothing again and tell their fans they tried to get Soto and that it was Soto and Boras’ fault for holding things up.
Are tears rolling down your face as you write this?
The entitlement is bizarre. Give it until February before getting all depressed.
Lowenstein is an O’s fan! Those were tears of joy
Go look at what the Red Sox didn’t do the last 3 off seasons. They showed a lot of ‘interest’. Then go look at the ticket prices go up and the payroll go down. The fans have earned the right to complain.
I wonder if St Pete’s/Tampa have a tasset belief that the Devil Rays ownership are tied to the area ?
All indications is that ownership want to stay but aren’t scared to leave either – which is understandable as owners want to win and make profits . Florida hasn’t really ever been successful, attendance wise , the demographics show greater support for out of state clubs and there isn’t a local fervour. The icing on the cake is post storm and they’re are 2-3 cities chomping at the bit to welcome them with a public funded stadium .
Playing with fire it seems .
Still shocked there is no team in Charlotte. So much money to made there.
Red Sox make zero sense. They need the RH bat. At least offer the QO. Worst case you have O’Neill for one more year or you get a comp pick if he signs. If he stays you have flexibility to start trading the volume of prospects they keep saying they have.
With three years of ticket prices going up, payroll going down, the farm system loaded up they can easily afford Burnes and Soto, as well as another veteran starter there are no excuses this off season.
Yeah kind of baffling they didn’t offer the QO. They totally misread the market and like you said, either way they could use RH for one more year. They’re just all in on Soto…
They didn’t misread the market…..now they can lie about their efforts and Sox fans will keep drinking the kool-aid and buying more Sox merchandise.
Glad the Phillies missed out on O’Neill at that price. Grichuk at 2/24 sounds more like a fit.
I don’t see what plan B is for the Rays. Yes, it sucks that the new stadium is delayed a year, but nothing will be ready sooner (unless they move in to the old Montreal stadium after it is upgraded). Plus, they sabotaged the funding for the Trop repairs by saying the deal was dead as the vote was going on.
The Rays didn’t sabotage anything. The Rays asked St. Pete not to fund repairs to the Trop because they would prefer to submit a claim for damages, and the city obliged them.
I don’t know where things go locally if the County refuses to approve their bonds on 12/17, but with the City having approved their bonds last week, I suspect the County will fall in line. If that happens, then the St. Pete stadium is back on track. If the County refuses, the Rays can probably keep the redevelopment money they are due under a separate contract with the city/county, and go pretty much anywhere they want. Yes, they may have to play in Omaha’s little league stadium, another minor league stadium or even a college stadium for the next 3 years, but they’ll be fine.
Yes they did sabotage the funds to repair the Trop:
cbssports.com/mlb/news/st-petersburg-council-votes…
St. Pete approved repair funds for the Trop, and then Brian Auld said they weren’t confident the team was going to stay on that same day as the vote, which led St. Pete to rescind the approved funds. If Auld hadn’t said that, they’d be repairing the Trop as we speak and they’d have a home between 2026-2028. Both sides are awful, but the Rays are doing things that looks like they’re actively trying to sink the deal.
There’s a Hillsborough politician saying that he will try to get the Rays to move to Ybor City. He;s checked and the land is still available. wfla.com/sports/rays/a-rays-move-to-ybor-city-coul…
Oh man, I’d love that!
Won’t happen. Hagen is the only guy in Tampa that wants the Rays.
Yeah, from what I’ve read, the funding isn’t there from the local businesses and government. They pushed hard for Hillsborough in the past, so I don’t anything has changed.