Bryson Stott rewatched every Phillies postseason game, and it sparked a change (2024)

CLEARWATER, Fla. — Soon after Bryson Stott returned home to Las Vegas following the longest season of his life, he had a mission. The wounds were still fresh last November. But the rookie shortstop did not want the unbelievable memories to fade. For weeks, his buddies told him, “You could hear it through the TV. It felt like you were there.” So, Stott wanted to experience the postseason like that.

“I watched every game,” Stott said.

He rewatched every game?

“Every game,” Stott said.

How come?

“I didn’t know what else to do,” Stott said.

Just your at-bats?

“No,” Stott said. “I watched every game.”

He has a soundbar. “I turned it up,” Stott said. He blasted the surround sound. “Everything,” Stott said. “Just to feel what it was like watching it.” Usually, his girlfriend joined him. He rewatched the Cardinals series in a day. It did not take long to go through the Braves and Padres series.

“The World Series games, I couldn’t get through those as fast,” Stott said. “All those memories. It’s good memories, but then, like, we were two wins away.”

Sometimes, he had to stop the replays.

“Yeah,” Stott said. “I mean, I wasn’t going to cry. But I was like, “Hmmmmm.’ Just one hit there. Yeah.”

There was something else he noticed. It was weird, Stott said, rewatching himself. He never said to himself, “Oh, I’m tired. I can’t do it today.” There was an energy boost in the postseason.

“But,” Stott said, “looking back and rewatching the games I could see that I was tired. Just kind of how my swing was. Everything was moving at once. I didn’t feel it at the time, but watching it, it looked like I had to use my whole body to swing.”

And it made him think.

No one saw a higher percentage of fastballs last postseason than Stott did. Three out of every four pitches were fastballs. Stott put 20 of the 177 fastballs he saw in play. Only one of them was a hit. He took a one-handed swing on a 90 mph cutter from Collin McHugh in Game 4 of the National League Division Series and flared it to left-center field for a single.

The attack plan against Stott was no secret.

“Heaters up,” Stott said.

What does he expect to see early in the 2023 season?

“Yeah, those,” Stott said. “Yeah. But I’m working on some stuff.”

Stott admitted he has always had trouble with high fastballs. “If you throw a fastball up,” he said, “any lefty is going to want to swing at it because we see it for so long and it looks so good.” But as Stott rewatched the postseason at-bats, he could tell his bat path was not level. His left arm wasn’t doing enough work.

Some left-handed hitters who are righty throwers will pull open with their right arm when they swing because that arm is stronger. But he did grip-strength tests in the offseason and his left arm was just as strong.

“I just wasn’t using it properly,” Stott said.

In the minors, Stott was not adept at hitting the high fastball. But he reached enough of them to avoid it being a glaring weakness.

“After you catch a few,” Stott said, “you’re like, ‘It’s not really an issue. They’re not going to do that every time.’ But in the majors, when you get up to the plate, they know exactly what you can and can’t hit. So, it was a lot more. I just wasn’t getting up there to it.”

More than anything, Stott said, it comes back to swing decisions. He had a choice: He did not have to swing at the elevated fastballs. Many of them might have been strikes. But a lot weren’t. Of those 177 fastballs he saw in the postseason, he fouled off 51 of them.

“He can foul them off,” manager Rob Thomson said. “But if he lays off, then they’re balls. And now he gets into hitter’s counts more often.”

It’s not as if Stott was whiffing at too many pitches. He had competitive at-bats in the postseason despite hitting .136/.255/.227 in 51 plate appearances.

“I think I could definitely take a few more pitches,” Stott said. “I mean, I see a lot of pitches in an at-bat, but it’s kind of deceiving sometimes considering how many foul balls I was hitting.

“I’d get to 3-2, and I worked hard to get to 3-2. I take the close one 2-2 and then 3-2, I would get there and it’s like, ‘Oh God, it’s 3-2.’ You know? Just kind of calming that down and just staying on the plate is a big thing for me.”

The Phillies are believers in Stott’s aptitude for adjustments. He displayed a certain maturity last season after a brutal start to his rookie year that resulted in a demotion to Triple A. He simplified his approach, with guidance from hitting coach Kevin Long, and boasted one of the best contact rates in the sport after June 1. But all contact is not created equal. For Stott to take his game to the next level, it will require better decisions.

“It’s basically getting back to being who he is and being consistent with who he is,” Thomson said. “And that’s being a tough out, seeing a lot of pitches, and not chasing. When he’s good, he doesn’t chase. He sees the ball out of guys’ hands really, really early. Earlier than most guys. But, you know, I think there’s more power in there. It’s going to come naturally with strength — whether it’s weightlifting or whatever. But I think there’s more power in there. That will take him to another level too.”

Stott is the second baseman now, but he’s assured a job this spring. That was not the case last spring. “Not having the lineman number is pretty good,” he said. Already having a roster spot can afford a young player the chance to use spring training as a time to refine.

Rhys Hoskins saw Stott earlier this month and asked if he felt more relaxed this spring. “Last year was just eyes on me no matter what I was doing,” Stott said. “Trying to make the team for the first time. It’s a little less stressful, but … .”

He still feels the need to prove something though. It’s one thing to make it. It’s another to adjust and show staying power.

“The more I’ve kind of tried to hit it with my left hand instead of my right hand, my (bat) path’s kind of cleaned up,” Stott said. “Now, it’s only BP, but the high ball is not giving me issues. It used to give me issues in BP. I feel a lot more comfortable getting up there. The ones that are at the top of the zone, I need to be able to hit.

“I think I’m getting there.”

(Top photo of Bryson Stott in the NLDS: Bill Streicher / USA Today)

Matt Gelb is a senior writer for The Athletic covering the Philadelphia Phillies. He has covered the team since 2010 while at The Philadelphia Inquirer, including a yearlong pause from baseball as a reporter on the city desk. He is a graduate of Syracuse University and Central Bucks High School West.