It’s been a tough year offensively for Bryson Stott.
Outside of a scorching hot three weeks in May, the Phillies second base struggled to find any kind of rhythm at the plate. He will finish the season with 40 fewer hits and an OPS 77 points below his total from last season.
It matters and doesn’t matter. All of the regular season numbers get thrown out when October rolls around. Nobody cares that Kyle Schwarber batted nearly .250 with 104 RBIs from the leadoff spot and that Matt Strahm had a 1.87 ERA.
For struggling players like Stott, there is comfort in seeing an empty scoresheet.
“Everyone starts at zero now, good or bad, you gotta put your season behind you,” Stott said on Monday in the Phillies clubhouse. “We won a ton of games as a team. Now it’s the ultimate team game and we’re looking forward to it.”
Stott’s production in the regular season, however, has forced the Phillies to think about who starts at second base in the postseason. Last season, Stott played every game regardless of who the opposing starter was. He will be the guy on most nights, but if the Phillies are facing a tough left-handed starter, they could pencil in the right-handed hitting Edmundo Sosa at second. The Phillies don’t like to use the word platoon when describing the situation at the position, but that is what it could come down to.
The Phillies won’t see a left-handed starter if they face the Brewers in the NLDS. Sean Manaea and David Peterson could start for the Mets against the Phillies if they make it out of Milwaukee. Stott did not make any of the three starts against Peterson or Manaea during the final month of the season.
Sosa, who filled in well for an injured Trea Turner at shortstop earlier in the season, is a strong defender at second and is batting .284 with an .861 OPS against lefties.
“When you’re the manager, that’s the tough part,” president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said. “Right now, we have a really good backup guy in Sosa, right? That can go over there and play and do a really good job. Well, who does he match up at that particular time? Does he decide to play, if we have a lefty, does he play Stott?
“And Stotter has hit lefties in the past. He just hasn’t hit them as well this year. But his defense is so good and the way he plays the games. He’s just an outstanding second baseman. Or do you go ahead and say ‘Ok, we’ll give him a day off and we’ll play Sosa over there.’ That’s a decision that Rob will have to make, but those are good choices and alternatives to have. And I don’t know. I’m sure it will depend upon the matchup on that particular day.”
How did it get to this point? For most of the Phillies lineup, the game plan is to throw soft stuff out of the zone and get them to chase. For Stott, fastballs are his kryptonite. About 60 percent of the pitches Stott sees are fastballs. As a comparison, Schwarber and Bryce Harper see around 53 percent fastballs. Nick Castellanos sees a fastball 47 percent of the time.
Stott’s slugging percentage on heaters 95 mph or harder dropped from .524 in 2023 to .311 in 2024. He was at .324 in 2022.
Adjustments are going to have to be made again. Heading into this season, the Phillies wanted Stott to take more walks and be more aggressive early in the count. His BB% rose from 6.1% to 9.3%. He is swinging earlier in counts.
None of those improvements led to a better overall season at the plate. Is there anything that did work? Stott says he’s happy to have gotten through all 162 games without going on the injured list.
He was playing through some things.
“Was able to stay on the field and stay away from the serious injuries,” Stott said. “Obviously, you play through things throughout the year that are nagging and don’t seem to go away and you kind of just put your head down and keep going and find a way to play through those things.”
Maybe Stott is due for the script to be flipped. After a strong season at the plate in the regular season last year, Stott hit a grand slam in Game 2 of the Wild Card series against the Marlins and ended the postseason 9-for-38 with one extra-base hit. He batted .136 in 16 postseason games in 2022.
Alec Bohm, who has the privilege of carrying a strong regular season into the postseason, put it best.
“Once you get into the playoffs, nobody is better than anybody,” Bohm said. “Everybody starts at zero and anything can happen. As much as you want to look at the season as a whole and see where people are at, who is who and what’s what, none of that matters anymore.
“What are you going to do today?”
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