The Red Sox brought in outfield help on Friday night, announcing the acquisition of outfielder Tyler O’Neill from the Cardinals. Right-handers Nick Robertson and Victor Santos are going back to St. Louis.

O’Neill, 28, authored a .231/.312/.403 batting line with nine home runs in 73 games around a foot injury this past season.

It also appeared that he had fallen out of favor in St. Louis over the past two seasons.

In early 2023, he and manager Oli Marmol got in a bit of a spat, where the skipper publicly admonished O’Neill for a perceived lack of hustle. Though the outfielder pushed back on the idea that he wasn’t giving full effort and also seemed visibly upset with Marmol making the disagreement public.

Boston made the move especially to boost their outfield. O’Neill, known for being a versatile fielder defensively, can also be found in center field aside from left and right, logged 303 2/3 innings there over 40 games in his career.

In the case of St. Louis, O’Neill became expendable with the massive surplus on the roster currently. Players like Alec Burleson and Richie Palacios are two young-player examples. But they also have Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt on the infield corners. Up the middle, they have Masyn Winn, Nolan Gorman and Brendan Donovan as potential options.

All around, the Cardinals have plenty of depth. It’s consistency they’re looking for as the 2024 season approaches.