The Boston Red Sox could be without the services of one of their top slugger in 2025.

Boston made an impressive move before the 2024 Major League Baseball season could kick off. The Red Sox need some right-handed pop in the middle of the lineup and swung a trade with the St. Louis Cardinals for outfielder Tyler O’Neil.

The trade clearly has worked out much better for the Red Sox than it has for the Cardinals. O’Neill is having one of the best seasons of his career and so far has 29 home runs and 56 RBIs while slashing .260/.349/.545 in 99 games played. This will be just the second season of his seven-year big league career that he will appear in over 100 games.

O’Neill has been great this season and the timing couldn’t be better for him as he will be a free agent at the end of the season. It’s unclear where he will land, but Bleacher Report’s Kerry Miller predicted it won’t be with Boston.

“Free Agents: (right-handed pitcher) Kenley Jansen, (outfielder) Tyler O’Neill, (right-handed pitcher) Nick Pivetta, (right-handed pitcher) Chris Martin, (catcher) Danny Jansen, (right-handed pitcher) Luis Garcia, (right-handed pitcher) Lucas Sims, (right-handed pitcher) Lucas Giolito (player option very likely to be exercised),” Miller said. “As far as position players are concerned, the Red Sox are in great shape for next year.

“Losing Tyler O’Neill stings a bit, but hard to argue with an outfield of Jarren Duran, Wilyer Abreu, and Ceddanne Rafaela. Theoretically getting healthy seasons out of both Triston Casas and Trevor Story sure would help fill O’Neill’s void in the lineup, too.”

It would make sense for the Red Sox to bring O’Neill back, but they have some solid outfielders on the roster already and Roman Anthony waiting to make his big-league debut. Unless Boston swings a trade involving an outfielder currently on the roster, it may make sense to spend elsewhere.

More MLB: Red Sox Could Target Projected $48 Million Ex-Yankees Star To Fill Hole

The Boston Red Sox needed a win to stay in the playoff hunt, and they didn’t leave anything up for debate Monday night against the Baltimore Orioles.

With the game tied 1-1 in the bottom of the third inning, right fielder Rob Refsnyder blasted a two-run home run to straightaway center. One batter later, designated hitter Tyler O’Neill lifted a solo homer over the Green Monster.

The back-to-back home runs gave Boston a 4-1 lead, but it didn’t stop there. The Red Sox plated a few more runs thanks to Refsnyder and center fielder Ceddanne Rafaela, going up 10-3 through seven innings.

Refsnyder launched his second home run of the night in the eighth, this time sneaking a fly ball inside the right field foul pole. O’Neill matched that, crushing a 422-foot missile to center.

The pair’s second instance of back-to-back home runs cemented a 12-3 victory for Boston, making history in the process.

According to MLB.com’s Sarah Langs, O’Neill and Refsnyder became just the second pair of teammates in Red Sox franchise history to hit back-to-back home runs twice in the same game. The other is Mo Vaughn and Tim Naehring, who did so on April 19, 1994.

O’Neill, Refsnyder and Rafaela combined to go 9-for-13 with five runs, 12 RBI and a walk in the win.

Refsnyder emerged as a solid backup outfielder for Boston in 2022, but his numbers took a step back across the board in 2023. He has returned to form here in 2024, racking up a career-high 11 home runs, 40 RBI and 1.0 WAR while batting .285 with an .836 OPS.

O’Neill, meanwhile, has been of the Red Sox’s most dangerous bats all season. The former St. Louis Cardinals standout is batting .260 with 29 home runs, 56 RBI, an .894 OPS and a 2.9 WAR despite hitting the injury list multiple times this year.

Those 29 bombs are good for the fifth-most home runs through a player’s first 100 games with the Red Sox, per director of media relations J.P. Long, and he has only played in 99 games so far. J.D. Martinez and Manny Ramirez had 32 apiece, Jimmie Foxx had 30 and Carl Everett had 29.

Monday also marked O’Neill’s seventh multi-home run game of 2024. As noted by Long, that is tied for the third-most in Red Sox single-season history.

Foxx owns the record, having done so 10 times in 1938, while David Ortiz achieved the feat nine times in 2005. O’Neill joins Manny Ramirez and Jim Rice as the only other Red Sox players with seven multi-home run performances in a year.

The Red Sox improved to 73-71 with the win Monday, leaving them 3.0 games back of the Minnesota Twins for the third and final AL Wild Card spot. FanGraphs is giving Boston an 11.1% chance of making the postseason, which is a step up from the 7.2% chance they had last Thursday.

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After a dominant 56-0 victory in their home opener against the Duquesne Dukes, the Eagles rose to No. 24 in this week’s AP Top 25. It’s the team’s first Top 25 appearance since week four of the 2018 season.

This marks an ideal start to the O’Brien era, especially noting how poor the ACC looks. Although it’s very early, BC looks like the clear second best team in the conference.

They have a unique opportunity to show themselves to be for real this weekend, traveling to Columbia, Missouri to face the sixth-ranked Tigers. Similar to week one against FSU, the Eagles open as a heavy road underdog – given just a 23-percent chance to knock off Missouri per ESPN’s Matchup Predictor.

They already have won this season in a spot like this one, so time will tell if Bill O’Brien can pull off another shocker on the road in one of the marquee matchups of the weekend.

How to Watch: Saturday, Sept. 14; 12:45 p.m. ET; SEC Network

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