Oakland awaits Stanton deal ... with an eye on Piscotty trade

The A’s are watching the Giancarlo Stanton proceedings closely. Not to see how their crossbay rivals do, but to gauge the remaining market for outfielders, because Oakland is on the hunt for a righthanded-hitting corner outfielder.

The best scenario for the A’s would be St. Louis to land Stanton, because that would make Stephen Piscotty available in a deal. The Cardinals and A’s discussed Piscotty this year, when St. Louis had interest in Sonny Gray.

Piscotty, 26, played at Amador Valley High School in Pleasanton and at Stanford, and he fits the bill in a number of ways for Oakland. He’s a right-handed hitter, and he’s signed through 2022 with a team option for 2023, a definite plus for a team that is building for the long term.

Piscotty is coming off a disappointing 2017 in which he hit .235 with nine homers and 39 RBIs, but the previous year, his second full season in the big leagues, he hit .273 with 22 homers with 85 RBIs, earning him a six-year, $33.5 million deal.

In his rookie year, Piscotty went 6-for-16 with three homers in the Cardinals’ Division Series loss to the Cubs.

Other outfielders on Oakland’s radar include Stanton’s teammate, Marcell Ozuna, and Avisail Garcia of the White Sox, but with teams all waiting to see what happens with Stanton, there is little movement in the trade market. Pedrique hired: The A’s filled a vacancy on their coaching staff Monday with a man who has managed two of the team’s up-and-coming players.

While managing in the Yankees’ farm system, Al Pedrique worked with Dustin Fowler, who is the front-runner for the A’s starting center-field job, and infielder Jorge Mateo. Pedrique spent the past two seasons at Triple-A Scranton-Wilkes Barre, where he won a Triple-A championship in 2016, and he was lauded for the development of the Yankees’ top prospects, including Aaron Judge, Clint Frazier and Gary Sanchez.

Pedrique, 57, was expected to be a candidate for Yankees’ manager but did not get an interview. The A’s hired Pedrique to be their first-base coach and moved Mike Aldrete to assistant hitting coach and Marcus Jensen to the bullpen-coach job. Oakland was left with a vacancy when bullpen coach Garvin Alston accepted a job on the Twins’ big-league staff.