BALTIMORE — Orioles manager Tony Mansolino wasn’t ready to say it would be “quite a while” before Tyler O’Neill returns to action, but the outfielder’s latest bout of shoulder soreness has put his projected activation during next week’s road trip in doubt.
After beginning a rehab assignment last weekend with Triple-A Norfolk and going 4-for-10 in three games for the Tides, O’Neill has sat out the last two games with left shoulder discomfort. The 29-year-old has been on the 10-day injured list with a left shoulder impingement since May 18 and also spent time on the IL with neck inflammation from late April through early May. Upon being activated on May 9, O’Neill played in just six games — going 1-for-15 with six strikeouts — before returning to the IL.
After recently welcoming back outfielders Colton Cowser and Cedric Mullins as well as infielder Jordan Westburg from the IL, the Orioles thought O’Neill would be ready to rejoin the major league club by next week at the latest.
“We’ve had some shoulder soreness for a couple days. We’re working through that right now,” Mansolino said Thursday. “I don’t think ‘quite a while’ is the way to put it, but you just don’t know how these things are going. We could look up in two days and he’s like, ‘Man, I feel great. I’m ready to go.’ It’s the human body, and the bodies are so different and things heal so differently.”
The oft-injured O’Neill has had 16 stints on the IL in his major league career, a big reason why some had reservations about general manager Mike Elias signing the right-handed slugger to a three-year, $49.5 million contract over the winter. Despite clubbing 31 home runs for Boston last season, O’Neill had three different IL stints because of a concussion, knee inflammation, and an infection in his leg. He’s played 100 or more games in a season just twice in a career that began with St. Louis in 2018.
In 93 plate appearances over 24 games this season, O’Neill has batted .188 with two homers, 10 RBIs, and a .605 OPS. Those numbers included a blistering 8-for-14 start over his first four games with the Orioles, but he’s gone 7-for-66 since then as his neck began giving him problems in mid-April.
The news coincided with the Orioles preparing to face Detroit ace and reigning Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal in Thursday night’s series finale. The dominant lefty is the kind of pitcher Elias had in mind when signing O’Neill, who owns a career .890 OPS against southpaw hurlers. In 25 plate appearances against left-handed pitching this season, however, O’Neill is 2-for-23 with 11 strikeouts and two walks.
In better injury news, Mansolino said backup catcher Gary Sanchez could be ready to return from the IL as soon as this weekend after previously suggesting he wouldn’t return until the next road trip. Sanchez has been on the IL with right wrist inflammation since April 28, but he’s gone 8-for-22 with three homers and a double over a seven-game rehab assignment with Norfolk.
In 12 games this season, the 32-year-old Sanchez has gone 3-for-30 with a homer, four RBIs, a walk, and 12 strikeouts. He signed a one-year, $8.5 million contract with Baltimore in December.
