Cardinals trade Marco Gonzales to Mariners for top prospect O'Neill
The Seattle Mariners and St. Louis Cardinals swapped a pair of highly-regarded prospects Friday, as Seattle acquired left-hander Marco Gonzales in exchange for outfielder Tyler O'Neill.
Gonzales - the Cardinals' first-round pick (19th overall) in 2014 out of Gonzaga University - is the only one of the two players with major-league experience, having thrown in 12 regular-season games (seven starts) for the Cardinals since 2014, plus another six games during the 2014 playoffs. However, he missed all of the 2016 season due to Tommy John surgery, and has made just one big-league appearance this year.
The 25-year-old has made 11 starts for the Triple-A Memphis Redbirds this year, where he's posted a 2.90 ERA, 1.039 WHIP, and 57 strikeouts to 17 walks. Seattle will assign Gonzales to its Triple-A affiliate, the Tacoma Rainiers, per Bob Dutton of the Tacoma News Tribune.
"Marco is a quality athlete with high character and a strong pitching pedigree who we feel fits our roster well in both the near and long term," Mariners general manager Jerry Dipoto said in a statement. "We find his current performance, preparedness, and proximity to the Major Leagues to be very appealing traits in a pitcher, particularly a young lefty who is now under club control through the 2023 season."
O'Neill, who turned 22 last month, was ranked as the Mariners' No. 2 prospect by MLB Pipeline prior to the trade. In his first season playing at Triple-A with the Rainiers, the British Columbia native has a .244/.328/.479 slash line with 19 homers - tied for fifth in the PCL - and 56 RBIs. He also has nine stolen bases.
O'Neill's 32 home runs in 2015 led all hitters in the High-A California League; in 2016 he paced the Double-A Southern League with 24 round-trippers.