The Orioles placed outfielder Tyler O'Neill on the 10-day injured list Wednesday with right shoulder inflammation, and selected the contract of infielder Luis Vázquez from Triple-A Norfolk to take his spot on the roster.
O'Neill told reporters in St. Louis that an MRI taken Tuesday came back showing a rotator cuff strain, tracing the injury directly to a diving catch he made late in Saturday's win over the Rays. "I'm really disappointed. All I do is try to go out and play a hard game every single day and give my best effort, and this is unfortunately the result of playing hard sometimes," O'Neill said. "Going to do my best to rehab and manage it."
That catch came in the middle of one of the wilder finishes of Baltimore's season — a diving grab on a short fly ball with a runner on second that ended the top of the ninth and kept the game tied, setting up Samuel Basallo's pinch-hit homer and eventually Dylan Beavers' walk-off hit in the 10th. O'Neill said he knew something was off almost immediately. "Didn't feel great in the moment. Kind of just shook it off, but I just wasn't feeling right," he said. "Hasn't felt right the last couple days."
Even knowing what it's cost him, O'Neill didn't hesitate when asked whether he'd make the same play again. "I'd do it again. It was a big situation and that ball had to get caught or that run was going to score," he said. "The offense did a great job of scoring the next inning, and it turned into a win. Obviously really frustrating, though, personally, having to deal with this."
O'Neill will remain around the team and in the clubhouse during his rehab rather than heading elsewhere, and said returning before the season is over is the target. "That's my goal. I'm going to do everything in my power to get healthy," he said.
The timing stings given how O'Neill had been playing. He'd appeared in right field 66 times this season and was in the middle of a strong stretch, hitting .293 with a .396 on-base percentage, three home runs, six RBI, and six runs scored over his first 13 games in August alone before the shoulder issue surfaced.
Vázquez steps in as a versatile fill-in capable of playing multiple infield spots. He missed the start of the season with a broken thumb suffered in spring training, and has hit at a 71 wRC+ across 58 games between Double-A and Triple-A since returning. He'd been in the mix for a bench role out of camp before the injury sidetracked him, and this marks his third stint on Baltimore's active roster over the past two seasons after multiple waiver and outright moves kept him in the organization. Baltimore's 40-man roster is now full following the move.