How a small change has led to a big improvement for the Phillies’ Bryson Stott

Stott crushed a slider up in the zone for a home run on Monday, a pitch he struggled against as a rookie. He’s not missing them often in his second year.

The Phillies' Bryson Stott watches his solo home run against the Diamondbacks on Monday.Read moreYong Kim / Yong Kim / Staff Photographer

by Alex Coffey

Published May 23, 2023, 2:36 p.m. ET

The Phillies’ Bryson Stott got hold of a slider at the top of the strike zone and sent it to the seats in right-center field for a solo home run in the fourth inning of a 6-3 loss to the Diamondbacks on Monday night. In many ways, that at-bat embodied Stott’s ongoing evolution as a hitter. A year ago, that pitch would have eluded him. Not only is he seeing the ball better, but he’s also been making better contact — particularly on pitches up in the zone.

Last year, Stott slugged .286 on pitches on the upper inside corner of the zone, and .154 on the upper middle part of the zone. In 2023, he’s slugging .455 on those upper inside corner pitches and .467 on upper middle pitches.

Phillies hitting coach Kevin Long said it is Stott’s biggest area of improvement.

Stott has worked hard with Long on flattening his bat path, which has helped him hit higher pitches. Last season, Stott was popping up more on those pitches. According to Baseball Savant, he popped up 19% of the pitches he saw at the upper middle/upper outside parts of the zone, and 14% of the pitches he saw on the upper inside corner.

He has yet to pop up on the upper outside corners this season. He’s popping up on the upper middle pitches at a rate of just 7%.

It may seem like a small, niche change, but Long sees it as an important part of his development. It’s not the only improvement he has made. Stott has also shown more pull-side power this season. Long said that power has always been there, but it has been bolstered by his no-stride approach. Ever since Stott removed his stride around the middle of last season, he has been seeing the ball better. He has cut his strikeout rate from 19.1% in 2022 to 15.5% in 2023. This month, he’s striking out at a rate of 8%.

“It’s still less than a year since he’s been doing it and it has allowed him the time to make decisions much better,” Long said. “Early on, and even last month, he was seeing it so well that he felt like he could hit everything.”

Because of Stott’s ability to hit the ball to the opposite field, pitchers have had to throw him inside more often, which is why the pull-side power has started to show. Last year, Stott batted .264 in 121 at-bats in which he pulled the ball. This year, he’s batting .328 in 58 such at-bats.

Stott said that a slight adjustment he made with Long has helped him on the pull side, too.

“Earlier, any time I really pulled the ball it was on the ground,” Stott said. “That had a lot to do with my head going down with the ball and makes it really hard to pull it how you want to pull the ball. So, K-Long just said, ‘Track with your eyes and not your head.’ So I tried to fix that.

“I was kind of diving down and it’s hard to pull the ball when you’re bent over. So just trying to keep my eyes on it instead of my head.”

Stott is not trying to pull the ball. This is more of an organic change. But it’s a promising trend for a player who will undoubtedly play a big role in the Phillies’ future.

“He’s being Stotter,” manager Rob Thomson said. “He’s having long at-bats, seeing the ball, fouling balls off. Using the entire field. I know he’s pulled a couple balls the last couple of days, but he’s still using the field. And taking the other way. If he catches the ball out front, he catches the ball out front.”