Benjamin Hochman Benjamin Hochman is a sports columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Follow Benjamin Hochman Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today

Stephen Piscotty should be every Cardinal fans' favorite player who's not on the Cardinals.

He continues to exemplify grace, and Friday was awarded with a prestigious honor for it.

The former Cards outfielder, traded to his hometown Oakland A's last winter, was named the winner of the 2018 Tony Conigliaro Award, honoring a “Major Leaguer who has overcome adversity through the attributes of spirit, determination, and courage that were trademarks of Tony C,” per the A's Twitter feed.

If you don't recall, Piscotty was a touted Cards prospect, but he struggled in the 2017 season, while dealing with the unfathomable stress surrounding his mother's diagnosis with ALS. The outfielder was traded to Oakland for Yairo Munoz and Max Schrock, so that Piscotty could be close to his mother, Gretchen.

He played valiantly with Oakland in 2018, but then stepped away from the team when his mother passed away. In his return, he homered in his first at-bat back. And he was a catalyst for Oakland, which made the playoffs, despite a paltry payroll compared to the others in the postseason.