Let's take a look at how some former Cardinals are doing after the first week and a half of the 2025 Major League Baseball season:
Outfielder Tyler O’Neill has become well known for his Opening Day heroics.
On March 27, O’Neill blasted a three-run home run into the seats at Rogers Centre in Toronto, helping the Baltimore Orioles to a 12–2 win over the Blue Jays. It was O’Neill’s sixth consecutive Opening Day with a home run, extending his Major League record. No other player has homered in more than four straight season openers.
“Obviously, I understand what’s going on, but it’s not like I’m going out there trying to do anything crazy,” said O’Neill, who finished the game 3-for-3 with three RBIs and two walks.
“I’m just not trying to make too much of it. I’m just trying to go out, have a good first at-bat, and see what the game gives me from there.”
After six seasons with the Cardinals, O’Neill played for the Boston Red Sox in 2024. He signed a three-year, $49.5 million contract with Baltimore during the offseason and immediately endeared himself to Orioles fans. Batting third and playing left field in the team’s home opener on March 31, O’Neill went 4-for-4 with one RBI and two runs scored, helping the Orioles to an 8–5 victory over the Red Sox.
“I was just really trying to feel the energy of the crowd, experience the city of Baltimore,” O’Neill said. “It was awesome out there today.”
Entering Monday’s game, O’Neill boasted a slash line of .333/.378/.576, with three doubles, one homer, and seven RBIs.
Philadelphia Phillies utility man Edmundo Sosa doesn’t have quite enough at-bats to officially rank among the league’s leading hitters in 2025.
But that could soon change.
Sosa, who was traded from St. Louis to Philadelphia in July 2022 for reliever JoJo Romero, has flashed one of the hottest bats in the league through the early portion of the season. Entering the team’s game on Tuesday, Sosa was batting .550 with a 1.321 OPS — and his blazing start could force Phillies manager Rob Thomson to make some decisions.
“We really gotta get him in the lineup,” Thomson told reporters after Philadelphia’s 8–7 win over Los Angeles on Sunday.
Starting at third base for the Phillies, Sosa went 2-for-4 with an RBI in the win over the reigning World Series champions. But it was Sosa’s hustle on a forceout during a late-game at-bat that proved crucial to the win: he beat out a potential double-play grounder that would have ended the seventh inning, instead allowing the eventual game-winning run to score.
“We’ve gotta really look at this. So far it’s real,” Thomson said of Sosa’s offensive explosion. “Two hits every [start]. He’s played great at third, great at short, [and] did well in center field [Saturday].”
Sosa wasn’t penciled in as a starter for the Phillies entering the season. However, he was added to the lineup at shortstop for the team’s second game after Trea Turner was scratched about an hour before first pitch due to back spasms, and has since started games at both second and third. He even entered Saturday’s game as a pinch-hitter and played a few innings in center field.
Phillies fans can expect to keep seeing him start somewhere in the lineup for the foreseeable future.
“We really gotta get into the lab and try to figure out some stuff to get him into the lineup,” Thomson said.
It was an offseason of uncertainty for starting pitcher Kyle Gibson — but it has led into a season of familiarity for the Gibson family.
After one season in St. Louis, where he went 8–8 with a 4.24 ERA, Gibson signed a one-year deal worth $5.25 million (with up to $1.525 million in performance bonuses) to rejoin the Baltimore Orioles. Gibson had pitched for Baltimore in 2023, posting a 15–9 record with a 4.73 ERA.
“As we talked about Baltimore, it’s like this was a place that we really enjoyed,” said Gibson, who signed the contract on March 21. “We know the clubhouse really well, and it’s one of the places where we thought, if there’s somewhere to play after playing in St. Louis, this is one of those places that would be pretty special and fun to be a part of.”
Baltimore welcomes the return of the 37-year-old, who finished atop the American League with 33 starts in 2023 and became a mentor for a young pitching staff that led the Orioles to the AL East title and a league-best 101–61 record.
“Kyle was amazing for us a couple years ago — what he did in the clubhouse, but also how he took the ball every five days and kept us in almost every game,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “He’s an unbelievable leader, had a good year last year in St. Louis, and I’m really happy about adding him back.”
The late signing forced Gibson to miss all of spring training, but the right-hander recently began throwing to live hitters and is expected to debut soon with Triple-A Norfolk.