JUPITER, Fla. -- As he looks at his Grapefruit League numbers with less than a week to go in camp, Stephen Piscotty prefers to do so through a Machiavellian lens: The end, he believes, will justify the means.
With a 1-for-4 game in Sunday's 3-0 win over the Marlins, Piscotty is now slashing .143/.250/.184 this spring. It's not exactly the production everyone hoped to see from the right fielder, who was projected to open the season as the team's cleanup hitter.
That early-season spot in the lineup, however, might be shifting as a result. In a batting order full of regulars on Sunday, Piscotty slotted in sixth. It could be that the Cardinals start him out a little lower than the four-hole to ease the expectations.
"It depends on how confident he feels when we break camp," manager Mike Matheny said of Piscotty's lineup fit. "[For] every one of those guys, [it's] the same thing. How does each guy feel? Is this particular person in a good spot? That will help dictate what it looks like as we help put the lineup together."
Matheny offered Piscotty the opportunity to head to the backfields if he wanted to get a bulk of at-bats in a Minor League game. Piscotty passed on the offer, believing that he's making strides in Grapefruit League games, even if the progress isn't identifiable on the stat sheet.

"I have nothing to really show for it, but I have hit some balls on the screws that have gotten caught, and I feel like they've been caught at an abnormally high rate," Piscotty said. "But that's baseball. Hopefully I'll get some cheap ones during the regular season. It may be a blessing. As a player, you feel good when you square up the ball, especially in Spring Training."
Piscotty has spent the spring working through tweaks to his swing. He described it as "trying to stay on my backside more," which is part of a larger effort to generate more power. He's still trying to sync up his timing amid the change.
"It's working, but it's kind of throwing off my contact point a little bit, so I have to readjust that," Piscotty said. "I kind of figured it could be a bumpy road, but I feel good where I'm headed. I can feel it really in BP and in the cage. It's starting to show up in the game. Today was good. It just hasn't blossomed on the field. But I'm sure it will."
The Cardinals remain committed to Piscotty, who is entering his second year as the team's starting right fielder. They've intentionally tracked what Matheny describes as "quality at-bats" to show Piscotty that the process is right, even if the results don't currently match up.
"I think right now, he's not exactly where he wants to be," Matheny said. "It's unfortunate because he was taking some really good at-bats and getting close. But he's always one day away from putting something together that radically flips it all around."