If he was a member of several other major-league teams, outfielder Tyler O’Neill might be wondering where he would be hitting in the lineup rather than if he would be in the lineup.
He has hit 57 home runs in his past two Class AAA seasons, including 26 in 64 games in 2018 at Memphis, where he also had an 1.078 OPS and .311 batting average and was named the Cardinals’ organization minor league player of the year.
In 61 games with the Cardinals last year, the 23-year-old British Columbia native popped nine more home runs. Fitting what seems to be the prototype of the modern offensive player, O’Neill also had 57 strikeouts in 142 at-bats with the Cardinals, although that ratio of one strikeout for every 2½ at-bats is high even by today’s standards.