Should the Miami Marlins target this OF?

Tyler O'Neill
Tyler O'Neill / Thearon W. Henderson/GettyImages
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I talked about this topic in the past, but it's becoming more and more of an urgent one. The Miami Marlins and the St. Louis Cardinals match up very well on a trade. The two teams actually line up very well on a certain SS as well. Should The Fish work out a trade with St. Louis for their CF Tyler O'Neill? Let's look into that possibility...

The Miami Marlins should pursue a trade for St. Louis CF Tyler O'Neill.

The St. Louis Cardinals have an OF logjam and need starting pitching. That by itself sets the stage for common ground on a trade between the two teams. Tyler O'Neill recently had issues with his manager and he's a free agent after next season. St. Louis prefers to rotate players through the DH spot, so O'Neill isn't really an option there. He's also too good of a defender for the position.

St. Louis have top prospect Jordan Walker waiting for a permanent spot in the OF. You just know that they will prioritize his playing time. They also have Lars Nootbaar locked in at RF. Nootbaar is probably their best OF right now. He's batting .271/.387/.400 so far this season, and they seem to really believe in him as a core member of the roster going forward. I don't see a scenario where they trade him for starting pitching.

There are other players in the mix too... Alex Burleson is a career .218/.279/.345 hitter, who won't be a free agent until after the 2028 season. He's not doing good enough to bring in much back in return now. He also has too much potential and long-term control, for them to give up on him now as well. This leaves us with Dylan Carlson. Carlson is a career .246/.320/.402 batter who was yet another top prospect for them. Like Burleson, he isn't doing well enough to bring in much value back. They're also unlikely to just sell low on him either.

Tyler O'Neill is a career .250/.317/.459 hitter who had his best season in 2021. He batted .286/.352/.560 with 34 home runs and 80 RBI that season. He batted .229/.291/.422 in 2018-2020. and .228/.303/.380 in 2022-2023. That season may just be an outlier, but there will definitely be a team hoping to get another 2021 season out of him. Should it be the Miami Marlins?

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