Six former Cardinal baseball players to return with the MLB in July

The first of the major four sports to ratify and seemingly come to a conclusion on their return to action is the Major League Baseball. And they’ll be coming back next month, in July for a 60-game shortened season.

Our very own McCovey Chronicles broke it down for us: MLB announces 60-game regular season.

So now that we know how and when, roughly, here’s who to root for this summer as they’re your very own Stanford Cardinal alum:

Jed Lowrie, 2B, New York Mets
Jason Castro, C, Los Angeles Angels
Stephen Piscotty, RF, Oakland Athletics
Cal Quantrill, SP, San Diego Padres
Austin Slater, LF, San Francisco Giants
Tommy Edman, OF, St. Louis Cardinals

Lowrie is definitely the headliner here after he signed a two-year, $2,000,000 deal with the Mets. He starred for Stanford, winning the Pac-10 Conference Player of the Year in 2004. He was a First-Team All-American in 2004 and in 2005 and was selected in the first round of the 2005 draft by the Boston Red Sox. He’s bounced around a bit, but bounced around between the Houston Astros and Oakland Athletics two times before landing with the Mets. For his career, he’s his 104 home runs, 509 RBI and was an All-Star in 2018 with the Athletics.

Castro played for Stanford from 2006-2008 and was selected in the first round by the Astros. After two tenures with the Astros and one with the Twins, he was signed by the Angels this past offseason and will debut with the team this year. He’s hit a career 86 home runs and 292 RBI while being named an All-Star with the Astros in 2013.

Castro currently is on a one-year, $6,850,000 deal with the Angels to play catcher.

Piscotty has been around the majors since the 2015 season with the Cardinals after he played for Stanford from 2010-2012. He was a preseason All-American ahead of the 2012 season and finished that year with a batting average of .329, 56 RBI and was an All-Pac-12 selection. He knocked home a career 132 RBI with 12 career home runs and 43 doubles to his credit. He was selected in the first round of the 2012 draft and made his major league debut in 2015.

Currently, Piscotty has hit 78 home runs and 295 RBI in the majors and is on a six-year, $33,500,000 deal with the Athletics to man right field.

Quantrill, Slater and Edman each are on one-year deals with their franchises while Quantrill and Edman will be making their second major league appearances this year. Slater, the most experienced of this trio, played for Stanford from 2012-2014 and hit five home runs and 72 RBIs in his Cardinal career. He was drafted in the eighth round of the 2014 draft and made his pro debut in 2017 with the Giants. He’s currently hit 60 RBI and nine home runs in his major league career.

Quantrill made his pro debut last season and finished with a 6-8 record and 89 strikeouts. He finished his Cardinal career with just a 9-5 record after his junior season was eliminated following Tommy John surgery. He was still drafted with the eighth overall pick by the Padres and spent the past two seasons in the minors before jumping to the pros last year. He’ll be a major factor in the rotation for San Diego this season.

Edman was drafted in the sixth round of the 2016 draft after he led Stanford in runs, hits, triples and stolen bases during his final season with the Cardinal. He made his pro debut last season as well, knocking in 11 home runs and 36 RBI on a .304 batting average from the plate. He will also be an integral part of the Cardinals infield rotation this season.

The MLB is back. The Cardinal alum are back. Ah, some normalcy.