St. Louis Cardinals Stephen Piscotty: Must Own in 2016?

By Brad Kelly | Dec 18, 2015

Each season rookies make their debuts that can either entice us to keep monitoring their progress in the present and future or perform poorly enough where we begin to question the hype that surrounded them in the first place. The St. Louis Cardinals have the golden reputation of continually churning out blue chip MLB ready prospects and Stephen Piscotty serves as another example of that.

Piscotty was a first pick for the Cardinals in 2012, but has widely flown under the radar in the top prospect rankings often ranking just inside of the top 100. He does not wow in any specific category, but he has shown that he doesn’t struggle in any area either. He has an advanced approach at the plate predicated on patience and a contact driven approach, which always serves as a good indication of potential development.

In the minors he has never hit below .272 at any stop and had a career high of 15 homers in 2013. More encouragingly, has been that his OPS has never been below .761, and regularly sat in the mid .800s. This all just goes to lay the groundwork of the type of player Piscotty is and the skillset he brings to the big leagues.

Thanks to a rash of injuries for the Cards in 2015, Piscotty was able to debut and appear in 67 games including the playoffs offering a nice MLB sample size. He was able to post a, .305/7 HR/39 RBI/2 SB line, a strong debut and he has worked himself into a starting role in 2016.

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The Cards lost Jason Heyward in free agency and have questions lingering at their first base position, so playing time will not be hard to come like it used to be for Piscotty. Usually corner outfielders are supposed to be more power oriented, but with Piscotty possesses an all-around game that the Cards desperately need after the Heyward departure.

Now Piscotty is not Heyward in the field by any means, nobody in baseball is, but there is no reason to believe that Piscotty cannot flirt with the stat line that Heyward produced in 2015. I am not saying that Piscotty will fully be able to match that level of production, especially SB wise, where Piscotty will be lucky to steal 10 bags, but why can’t he replicate a .293/13 HR/60 RBI/.797 OPS?

All his minor league stats point to that being attainable and Piscotty even shows that he still has power upside which could eclipse the 15+ mark with a full season of playing time. Over 67 games Piscotty had a 28% LD rate and showed the ability early on in the majors to be a gap to gap hitter (15 doubles, 4 triples).

There are very few minor leaguers that have the ability to come up and just mash, so to see a foundation of hard contact sparks optimism that he can keep developing. Heading into 2016, I have pegged Piscotty as a high value target because I sense that his situation and skillset bode well into a nice breakout season.

The Cards will need his offense and it seems that he will not have to actively compete for playing time like before. The Cards should still sport a solid lineup as Matt Carpenter will keep hitting, Matt Holliday should bounce back, and Brandon Moss hopefully gets better acclimated. So the core of the lineup should offer decent chances for Piscotty to build his counting stats and maintain weekly production.

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You will probably not have to invest too highly in Piscotty as the OF spot is so deep and offers more flashier options, but I like Piscotty as a mid to late round pick who can stabilize your outfield with the chance of some power upside. Keep monitoring him through the spring to see if he belongs as a high value target in 2016.

2016 Early Projections: .285/17 HR/70 RBI/7 SB/.820 OPS

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