Philadelphia Phillies second baseman Bryson Stott struggled through much of the 2024 season. It was painful, at times, watching him at the plate. It was also painful for him too, as he navigated his way through the season with a sore elbow that affected his swing.
Coming into training camp, with the reason for his down 2024 explained, many tabbed the 27-year-old as a key bounce-back candidate who the Phillies would be relying on as a secondary contributor to lengthen the lineup.
It appears, from his play this spring, that Stott's elbow is just fine. At least, he's swinging the bat like it is.
Bryson Stott looks poised for a bounce-back season for Phillies with blistering spring training results
In 11 Grapefruit League games, Stott is slashing .325/.485/.440 with one home run and five RBI. He has shown off his eye at the plate, controlling the zone with eight walks to four strikeouts in 33 plate appearances.
But the most encouraging development is the authority with which he is impacting the ball. His swing is doing damage, with a 36.8 percent line drive rate, and the exit velocity is popping. On Thursday, in the Phillies' 16-9 bludgeoning of the Atlanta Braves, Stott smashed his career-best exit velocity by two mph with a laser of a home run to right field at BayCare Ballpark.
At 111.8 mph, his fifth-inning solo homer topped his previous career-high of 109.8 mph.
Ball's jumpin' today 🚀 pic.twitter.com/mbbfnVVXgB
— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) March 13, 2025
Stott is far from what you'd call a slugger, but he has pop, as evidenced by his 15 home runs in his breakout 2023 season. He hit .280 with a .747 OPS in that season, his second in the majors, and many believed he would continue that progression at the plate in 2024. It didn't turn out that way.
He struggled to a .245 batting average and .671 OPS with 11 home runs. There was talk of a platoon with Edmunso Sosa late in the year, and he began to lose playing time. It was a shocking turn of events for the 2019 first-round pick, and it wasn't until after the season that we learned about the elbow (subscription required) from Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, per Jim Salisbury of PHLY.
Stott addressed the elbow issue when he returned to Clearwater this spring to get his training camp underway.
"It was kind of when I was out in front, fooled and had that hyperextension," Stott said about the nerve damage. "It would make my fingers go numb. I'd have to call time, and then it'd feel fine. I think as I kind of kept going and going, it got weaker and weaker. I was trying to compensate with different parts of my body. It got me into some bad habits.”
Phillies manager Rob Thomson likes what he sees from Stott this spring, just like everyone else, and is looking forward to see Stott bounce back in 2025.
"I think he’s going to have a much better season than he had last year," Thomson said in February about Stott, per MLB.com's Todd Zolecki. "I think whenever you have that type of injury, as you’re approaching the baseball and thinking about your finish, I think it just changes your swing a little bit in guarding against the swing and miss."
With Stott reclaiming his full-time second base job this season, he has a chance to make an impact on the lineup. We'll be looking for him to show his ability to get on base at a high rate, with a high batting average and walks, dominate on the basepaths with his speed, and deliver some power lower in the batting order.