Bryson Stott’s hot spring start sends loud message about Phillies’ second base plans

Many of the players on the Philadelphia Phillies with a starting roster spot for Opening Day use spring training as an opportunity to get into a groove despite limited Grapefruit League plate appearances. Bryson Stott is one starter who wants to improve against left-handed pitching and he's off to a solid start over the first week of games.

Stott has shown his eagerness to play as much as possible during the regular season but manager Rob Thomson plans to begin the regular season with a platoon of Stott and Edmundo Sosa at second base. The 28-year-old Stott needs to show more consistency against left-handed pitching and may be showing signs of improvement based on his start to spring training.

Bryson Stott aiming for Phillies’ everyday second base job with improvement against left-handed pitching

In 13 plate appearances so far, Stott has already collected five hits, including a double and a pair of home runs, with five walks and just one strikeout. It’s early but he’s batting .625 with a 2.269 OPS.

Stott has also gotten off to a good start against lefties. He hit an opposite-field home run off Washington Nationals southpaw Jake Eder on Thursday and then roped an RBI double off Miami Marlins lefty Robbie Snelling on Friday.

According to NBC Sports Philadelphia's Cole Weintraub, Stott had only five extra-base hits versus left-handed pitching all of last season. In 111 at-bats versus lefties in 2025, the second baseman slashed 225/.287/.288 with one home run. His .575 OPS was the eighth-worst among left-handed hitters in those matchups with at least 120 plate appearances, per Weintraub.

Following last season's All-Star break, Stott began to lower his hands at the plate, which the infielder said allowed his swing to "flow naturally." Phillies hitting coach Kevin Long explained how the change in Stott's stance impacts the infielder's ability to be more successful.

"If I lose energy this way,” Long said, motioning to the right, per MLB.com's Todd Zolecki, “I’m not hitting into my front side. I kill my bat speed doing that. We had to get him going toward the baseball. It changed his contact point.”

Following Stott's adjustment during his plate appearances beginning in July, he hit for a .310 batting average, 12th-best among qualifiers, with an .880 OPS over the final 50 games of the season, per Weintraub.

Stott will continue to use the entire field during his at-bats but he's going to let it happen naturally rather than get into trouble forcing where he wants the baseball to go.

"If you just take your swing and it’s an outside pitch, it’s going to go to left, instead of trying to guide it to left,” Stott said, per Zolecki. “For example, I’ll get an inside heater and I’m like, ‘Well, I want to hit the ball to left this at-bat, and then I try to finagle the barrel around and that’s when I get myself in trouble. The second half was more of just letting the ball dictate where it’s going to go rather than me trying to dictate where it’s going to go.”

Stott wants to play all 162 games during the regular season, but the Phillies have Sosa, a right-handed batter who hits left-handed pitching better than Stott. Per Weintraub, Thomson mentioned Sosa's success against lefties when determining if Stott will see an increase in plate appearances versus southpaws this season, and that it will be difficult not to give Sosa at-bats due to his previous success in these circumstances.

Sosa compiled a .318/.362/.533 slash line with an .895 OPS, six home runs, and 16 RBI in 107 at-bats versus lefties in 2025, which is much better than Stott. In four fewer at-bats, Sosa had 34 hits versus left-handers compared to Stott's 25.

While it's a very small sample size in spring training, Stott is off to a solid start versus lefties due to his adjustment at the plate. If he can maintain the hitting approach that has helped since last summer, he could be a reliable presence in the Phillies lineup and might be able to secure the everyday job at second base this season.