The Orioles should be willing to take drastic measures to get Tyler O'Neill off their team at this trade deadline

In Tyler O'Neill's first four games with the Baltimore Orioles, he slashed .571/.857/.1.445 with a homer on opening day. For that brief moment, it seemed as though the Orioles had made a brilliant move signing him that offseason to a three-year deal worth a $49.5 million. In fact, it seemed likely that he would be able to opt out of the contract and negotiate some sort of raise. Everything since those four games has been a disaster for O'Neill and the Orioles.

For the rest of 2025, he was mostly injured, but when he wasn't, he was largely ineffective. Now in 2026, he's been healthy outside of a mysterious concussion and once again has proven to be an anchor around this Orioles team's legs as they tried to keep their head above water in the AL playoff race. O'Neill's walk-off game-losing throwing error on Friday night might have been what drags this Orioles team under for good.

The Tyler O'Neill contract has been a disaster for the Orioles

O'Neill was brought to Baltimore to help them hit lefties. This season, he's been so bad against lefties he can't even be used as a small side of the platoon bat anymore, slashing .132/.207/.170 against southpaws. His season-long batting average of .184 ranks 264th out of 277 batters with at least 140 PAs, and his .272 slugging percentage ranks 266th. He's also the worst defensive outfielder on the team and too slow to be used as a pinch runner.

He doesn't hit for average or power, he can't run, and he can't field. He can still throw hard, but on Friday, he demonstrated how he's more likely to use that skill to harm the team than to help it. The Orioles are currently paying $15 million annually for what is basically a zero-tool player.

The money is the real issue. If O'Neill were on the veteran minimum, he would have been cut a long time ago, but the fact that the Orioles are paying him so much is what is keeping him around. As much as new owner and author David Rubenstein likes to say that there is no limit to what the Orioles are willing to spend, $15 million annually is still a lot in Baltimore, and the team clearly doesn't want to have to pay to send him away.

With the trade deadline coming up, they do have another option. They could package O'Neill with a prospect to get a team with room on their payroll to take his contract. With O'Neill's contract off the books, the Orioles could repurpose that $15 million next year towards bringing in a pitcher who can help the team win.

Salary dumps are not uncommon in baseball. Last year, the Twins dumped Carlos Correa's contract onto the Astros, and last offseason the Red Sox dumped Jordan Hick's contract onto the White Sox. It's just a matter of finding a team with room on their roster and payroll for your guy and then finding out what it will cost you to move him.

Once O'Neill's salary has been dumped, the team he arrives with doesn't even need to keep him. The prospect they are getting is to offset the value of the cash they have to pay him, so they can cut him and have his salary on the books and be happy with their newest addition to the farm system. Or they can keep him and try to revive him, and if they do, they can flip him to another team next year and get value from him coming and going.

As far as what teams are out there that could take O'Neill, funnily enough, his old squad in St Louis is near the bottom of the league in payroll, and this offseason showed that they were willing to pay down contracts to get prospects in return. If they're not interested in a reunion, then the White Sox are still there, clearly from their business with the Red Sox, they don't mind taking on some money for a prospect either.

The Orioles should do their very best to rid themselves of O'Neill and his disastrous contract at the deadline, and if they can't, it's worth considering just cutting him and getting him as far away from the field as possible.

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