In Stephen Piscotty trade with Oakland, Cardinals show grace rarely seen in baseball deals

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – The St. Louis Cardinals obtained the potent hitter they desperately needed when they traded for outfielder Marcell Ozuna in one of the winter meetings’ biggest deals.

And yet it was another move that earned them widespread admiration.

In a business where decisions are almost invariably determined by gains and losses, the Cardinals took human needs into consideration in sending outfielder Stephen Piscotty to the Oakland Athletics on Thursday in exchange for minor-league infielders Yairo Munoz and Max Schrock.

The trade allows Piscotty, a Stanford alum who grew up in the East Bay town of Pleasanton – about 30 miles southeast of Oakland – to be closer to his family. His mother, Gretchen, was diagnosed in May with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

“There were certainly some opportunities to move him elsewhere, and when you’re looking at how to break a tie, clearly that did play into it,’’ John Mozeliak, the Cardinals’ president of baseball operations, told news reporters.

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The Cardinals didn’t make the trade purely for altruistic reasons. The arrival of Ozuna, who hit 37 homers with a .924 on-base plus slugging percentage with the Miami Marlins last season, created a logjam in the outfield. Center fielder Dexter Fowler just completed the first season of a five-year, $82.5 million contract, and left fielder Tommy Pham is coming off a breakout year in which he batted .306 with 23 homers and a .931 OPS.

St. Louis also has two other major league outfielders in Randal Grichuk and Jose Martinez, and a prospect in Harrison Bader. Piscotty, who signed a six-year, $33.5 million deal in the spring, was expendable after batting just .235 with a .708 OPS and getting demoted to the minors.

But he earned the contract with a strong season in 2016, batting .273 with 22 home runs, 85 RBI and an .800 OPS. It’s conceivable concern over his mother’s illness contributed to Piscotty’s down season and he could bounce back next year.

Cardinals manager Mike Matheny told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch the club felt for Piscotty and his ordeal.

“You can’t even really go there or understand … at his age and what it is that he had to endure or what that is like for a family. I think it’s really just understanding that it’s very, very difficult. You let him know that you care. You acknowledge. You have compassion.’’

Piscotty, who turns 27 in January, fits perfectly into Oakland’s plan to slowly build a contender with affordable talent. Even though the A’s finished last in the American League West for the third year in a row in 2017, they went 17-7 in the final 3½ weeks and showed signs of better days to come with the emergence of homegrown prospects like first baseman Matt Olson (24 homers in 59 games) and slick-fielding third baseman Matt Chapman.

The club traded Ryon Healy to the Seattle Mariners partly to open the DH spot for Khris Davis, who has defensive deficiencies as a left fielder but has produced more than 40 homers and 100 RBI each of the last two seasons.

That left a vacancy in a corner outfield spot that Piscotty will fill, likely in right, with Matt Joyce and Chad Pinder probably splitting time in left field.

The A’s had been interested in Piscotty for some time and were willing to part with Munoz and Schrock – their No. 13 and 17th prospects, respectively, according to MLB.com’s rankings – because they have a deep reservoir of young infielders in the minors.

But the trade may not have been completed without the Cardinals’ willingness to do right by Piscotty, which earned them complimentary responses on social media.

It also elicited praise from Billy Beane, the A’s executive VP of baseball operations. Approached on his flight back by a Bay Area News Group reporter, Beane said he felt the Cardinals wanted to help Piscotty get closer to home.

“That’s what makes the Cardinals one of the classiest organizations in sports,” Beane said.

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