Cardinals Trade Stephen Piscotty to A's, Where He'll Be Close to Mother With ALS

Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak said the team considered Piscotty's mother in trade talks.

The Cardinals acquired Marcell Ozuna from the fire-selling Marlins in a trade on Wednesday, a deal essentially forced St. Louis to trade an outfielder to carve out an everyday spot for Ozuna. 

Stephen Piscotty, a 26-year-old from Pleasanton, Calif., was the outfielder the front office decided to move. St. Louis traded Piscotty, who hit nine homers and drove in 39 runs in 107 games last year, to the Oakland Athletics in exchange for two minor league prospects. 

The move means Piscotty will be closer to his mother, who was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) during this past season and lives in California. Piscotty missed time during the year as he returned home to be with his family. 

"There were certainly some other opportunities to move him elsewhere," Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak said, per MLB.com's Jenifer Langosch. "When you're looking at how to break a tie, clearly that did play into it."

In his three seasons in the majors, Piscotty has a .262 batting average with 38 homers and 163 RBIs. After playing collegiately at Stanford, Piscotty was selected 36th overall by the Cardinals in the 2012 draft. He signed a six-year, $33.5 million contract that runs through the 2022 season in April.