Bryson Stott’s versatility, willingness to switch positions helped pave the way for Phillies to sign Trea Turner

Not to detract from another solid season by one of baseball’s most dynamic players, but it’s difficult not to notice that Trea Turner fell .002 short of batting .300 for a third consecutive year and one hit shy of equaling his career high.

Blame Bryson Stott.

In the sixth inning at Dodger Stadium on May 15, Turner smoked a line drive that was headed for left field. Expected batting average, according to Statcast: .700. And considering Turner’s speed, it would have gone for extra bases if the ball found the gap in left-center.

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But instead, Stott — just back in the majors and starting at shortstop for the Phillies — leaped and caught it.

“My first thought was, ‘He gets enough hits,’ ” Stott said the other day, chuckling through the phone. “ ‘I might as well take this one away.’ ”

Even Turner can laugh about it now. He can also debate Stott over whether he would have been able to make the play. Not that it matters. After signing an 11-year, $300 million megacontract with the Phillies, Turner will take over at shortstop in 2023, nudging Stott to second base.

Stott, coming off a promising rookie season, insists he doesn’t mind one bit, as you might expect. He told Rob Thomson as much after the World Series, when the manager braced him for the likelihood that the Phillies would sign one of four elite free-agent shortstops, with Turner ranking above Carlos Correa as their No. 1 choice.

“Any time you can add somebody like Trea Turner is huge,” Stott said. “Bryce [Harper] was like, ‘You’re going to love sharing the middle of the infield with him.’ I have no issues sliding over to second base. I still need to do my job. I just want to play. Topper [Thomson] and [president of baseball operations] Dave [Dombrowski] know that.”

If anything, Stott’s open-mindedness to a position switch — to say nothing of his athleticism and versatility — paved the way for the Phillies to make their biggest move of the offseason.

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Stott, 25, played shortstop in college at UNLV. The Phillies drafted him as a shortstop with the 14th overall pick in 2019. All but 21 of his 162 games in the minor leagues came at shortstop. Harper, who grew up with Stott in Las Vegas, once described him as “a very good mix of JJ Hardy and Brandon Crawford,” both shortstops.

But unlike a lot of young shortstops, for whom the premium position can become an identity, Stott claims to have only ever viewed himself as an infielder. Maybe it’s a product of coming up during the era of defensive shifts, when middle infielders, in particular, had to be comfortable playing on both sides of second base.

Whatever the case, Stott made an easy transition to second base in June after Jean Segura broke his right index finger. Never mind that he played only 13 games at second in the minors. He had more than enough arm strength, the footwork to adjust to the other side of the base, and the athleticism to do “everything backwards,” as Larry Bowa described the feeling of moving from short to second.

Stott ranked three outs above average among second basemen, equal to Segura in nearly 250 fewer attempts, based on Statcast. He also saved one run more than average, according to Sports Info Solutions; Segura rated one run worse than average.

“The biggest thing I learned was, if you dive up the middle, you still have time to throw the guy out,” Stott said. “Over at short, if you’re diving to your backhand, it’s going to be a heck of a play just because of the sheer fact that it’s a lot further. At second, you have that extra split second.”

Stott said his biggest challenge was actually returning to shortstop in August after the Phillies released Didi Gregorius. But his adaptability only emboldened the Phillies to decline Segura’s $17 million option for next season and cannonball into the pool of star-studded free-agent shortstops.

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A group chat with several teammates kept Stott informed of the hot-stove rumors. Although he played a total of 304 games — and attended a two-week minor-league minicamp — in 550 days from the start of the minor-league season in 2021 through the end of the 2022 World Series, he barely took time off, getting back in the batting cage two weeks ago.

“I get bored,” he said, laughing.

Stott said he has passed the idle time by rewatching each of the Phillies’ 17 playoff games, noting that “my heartbeat was faster watching it than when I was playing.”

“The favorite thing for me was watching the dugout, just seeing the genuine happiness that the guys had for each other,” Stott said. “Panning into the crowd and seeing people crying after we won a game was pretty special. I knew it was loud, obviously. But realizing how loud the crowd actually was, the crowd felt like it was in my living room.”

For the Phillies to recapture those moments, Stott will need to build on what he did as a rookie. He overcame an 8-for-70 start and a 2-for-31 September skid to finish at .234/.295/.358. From June 1 through Sept. 17, a span of 87 games, he batted .266/.328/.415 and got several big hits, including a walk-off homer June 5 against the Los Angeles Angels and a game-tying double in the ninth inning Aug. 23 against the Cincinnati Reds.

The Phillies intend to give Stott the additional responsibility of playing every day. After sitting him against lefties in the postseason to capitalize on a platoon advantage with slick-fielding Edmundo Sosa, Thomson said he intends to turn Stott — and center fielder Brandon Marsh — loose against all pitchers.

“I think it’s really important,” Thomson said. “I’ve seen good at-bats out of Stott on left-handed pitching. I’ve seen it out of Marsh at times. You’ve got to give people time to fail or do well. And you have to be consistent with them and get them to play and give them the confidence so that they just keep growing as a player.”

Stott and Turner haven’t met, other than saying hello at second base a few times last season. But Harper raves about the star shortstop, often referring to him as his favorite player to watch. That’s good enough for Stott, who texted Turner through Instagram two weeks ago and plans to speak with him after the holidays.

» READ MORE: How the Phillies won over ‘No. 1 target’ Trea Turner without offering him the most money

From now on, no amount of Turner hits will be too many for Stott.

“He’s an unbelievable player,” Stott said. “You know when he’s on first. If he hits a single, it’s almost a double if he wants to steal. You can’t ever put your head down. If he hits a for-sure single, he may turn it into a triple. Just having somebody that can impact the game with his legs is unreal. Any time you can get a guy like that, I’m obviously excited.”