How the Arizona Fall League helped refine Phillies prospect Bryson Stott’s approach at the plate

Stott spent his time in the AFL trying to becoming a more patient hitter, which he hopes to carry into 2022 in his push for the shortstop job.

The Phillies' Bryson Stott slashed .318/.445/.489 in 119 plate appearances at the Arizona Fall League.Read moreMLB

by Alex Coffey

Published Feb. 16, 2022, 6:04 p.m. ET

CLEARWATER, Fla. — Expectations were already high for Phillies prospect Bryson Stott heading into the 2021 Arizona Fall League. He was coming off a minor league season that saw him skyrocket from high A to triple A, posting a .299/.390/.486 slash line with 16 home runs through 112 games.

President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski was so impressed that he told Stott, during a visit to Peoria, Ariz., last year to come to spring training with the mindset of competing for the Phillies’ shortstop job. But entering the Fall League, Stott still saw some need for improvement, and in one area in particular.

In 2021, Stott whittled down his strikeout rate from 23.2% when he started the year at high-A Jersey Shore to 22.2% at double-A Reading to 19.5% at triple-A Lehigh. But his walk rate never exceeded his strikeout rate (he posted 23.2%, 10% and 19.5% walk rates from high A through triple A, respectively). So after the season, he called his former hitting coach with Reading, Tyler Henson, and mapped out a plan for his time in Arizona.

“I let him know what I was trying to do in the AFL, and he said, ‘Go for it, see what happens,’” Stott said during a media availability on Wednesday at the Phillies minicamp. “If I was going up there for a certain pitch and they didn’t throw it, I just didn’t swing.

“In the past, I’ve never really been one to sit on pitches. I would let my athleticism take over. In the Fall League, I really tried to go up there and say, ‘I’m going to sit on this slider from this guy that throws them 70% of the time.’ If he tries to throw three fastballs, so be it.”

The results spoke for themselves. Stott reached base in all 26 games he played in. He walked 24 times, and struck out only 14 times, slashing .318/.445/.489 in 119 plate appearances. He made a point of swinging at fewer first pitches — of which he says he has been known to do in the past — and tried to take an overall more patient approach.

“I swing at the first pitch a lot,” he said. “Obviously, if it’s my pitch, I want to swing at it. I wasn’t being passive or anything like that. But if I knew I couldn’t hit it, I wouldn’t swing. Obviously I’m human, I’m going to swing at things I probably shouldn’t be swinging at. That was a big thing for me.

“I really honed in on the strike zone. I tried to not miss the pitches that I knew I could hit, and sometimes they were straight up pitching around. It was really just focusing on the pitches that I knew I could hit, and not chasing the ones I couldn’t.”

It’s a strategy that Stott plans to take with him as he continues to compete for that big-league shortstop job Dombrowski mentioned last year. And speaking of that job, Stott is definitely embracing the competition. When asked on Wednesday whether he thought he could win it, he said, without hesitation, “Yeah, absolutely.”

“I got to see him in the fall, got to spend some time with him — really good baseball player,” Phillies farm director Preston Mattingly said on Wednesday. “That’s kind of my impression. A gamer. This guy loves to play, always has a smile on his face. One thing that stands out to me is this guy gets along with everybody.”