Piscotty--1B or OF??

As the course of his first 63 big league games unfolded, the St. Louis Cardinals showed more and more confidence in playing Stephen Piscotty at first base. The rookie finished with 11 games (9 starts) there and started another three of four games at first in the National League Divisional Series.

So heading into 2016, does Mike Matheny view Piscotty more as a first base or outfield option for the team?

“The use is pretty obvious–we’re going to use him wherever he’s going to fit in best with his bat,” answered Matheny. “Had to put him in an uncomfortable spot and he responded amazingly well. We do it on a pretty big stage and just didn’t see anything that made us flinch at all.”

Piscotty hit .375 (6-16, 3 HRs, 6 RBIs) in the NLDS after putting up a .305 mark with 7 HRs and 39 RBIs in 233 regular season at-bats.

Defensively, even before he received regular turns at the bag, Piscotty would spend time during each pregame working out at first with Jose Oquendo. Sometimes others would be involved, sometimes just the two of them. But nearly every day, there was work.

‘He’s been such an impressive kid to watch,” continued Matheny. “I believe he’ll be a plus defender in the outfielder. In time, if that’s our necessity to have him improve at first base, I think he’ll end up being a plus defender there as well. He’s just the kind of player that figures out how to get it done. This season, I think all the way across the board, he validated that.”

PISCOTTY-ADAMS-and HOLLIDAY??

So would that mean Piscotty and Matt Adams are the two leading candidates for first base next season?

“I’d say they’re two of the candidates,” said Matheny. “We like Stephen in the outfield a lot and we’ll just kind of see how the rest of it plays out.”

Adams began the season as the starting first baseman and clean-up hitter for the Cardinals, but a quad strain and subsequent surgery at the end of May cost him most of the season–even though he made a remarkable return to make 33 plate appearances in September.

“In terms of how you see him next year, he needs a good off-season; he needs to come prepared,” said John Mozeliak, who left the door open at first base.

“It’s going to be a competition,” he said. “We try to have Spring Training have internal competition every year, but he’s certainly capable of re-earning that spot and that role if all things go well for him.”

Arbitration-eligible Brandon Moss was not ruled out of the scenario, but it was pretty clear that any thought of Matt Holliday moving in from the outfield is not likely.

“We’ve been probably as aggressive as any team in baseball with taking guys from one position and putting them in another, but that’s a slippery slope sometimes,” began Matheny on the idea. “There’s some guys that are a little more able to do that, a little more flexible for it. There’s other players that we’ll kind of play around with it behind the scenes and realize this is not going to be best for our club or best for this player. So, we take all those things into account.

“There’s a lot of time spent with Stephen Piscotty before we have him out taking ground balls at first base,” continued Matheny. “There has to be a lot of time spent talking and working through and just making sure this isn’t something this is something that’s going to set somebody backwards or the team backwards. I think with that being said, we’ve kind of thrown some things out there in the past with a number of players–Matt being one of them and we believe where he is, is probably the best spot for him.”

photo credit: Bill Greenblatt/UPI, Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports