Cardinals' Tyler O'Neill: Finally making progress with back

O'Neill said Sunday that he sees "the light at the end of the tunnel" in his recovery from the lower back strain that has kept him on the injured list since early May, John Denton of MLB.com reports. "I'm on doctor's orders in terms of a core program and what that timetable looks like," O'Neill said. "Hopefully later this week, we can get into baseball activities and can ramp up from there."

According to Katie Woo of The Athletic, O'Neill is scheduled to be re-evaluated Thursday, at which time he could be cleared for baseball activities if his physician, Dr. Robert Watkins, is satisfied with how the outfielder has responded to the two injections he received June 1 to address his ailing back. O'Neill seems to have responded well to core-strengthening work over the past week and a half and noted that he's pain-free for the first time in months, according to Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Given the length of his layoff from game action, O'Neill will probably need at least a handful of minor-league rehab contests to get his timing back at the plate, so he still may not be cleared to return from the 10-day injured list until late June in a best-case scenario.