The Phillies’ Bryson Stott is known for his long at-bats. Now he wants to get aggressive earlier.

CLEARWATER, Fla. — Bryson Stott had a different offseason. He and his wife, Alexandra, welcomed a baby girl in November. That was a change. But there was another, less monumental one.

“I actually started taking balls in BP,” the Phillies second baseman said. “Usually, I swing at everything. I always want to swing.”

Not anymore. Just because Stott can reach those pitches — and foul them off — doesn’t mean he should. Stott is known for his long, winding at-bats, which typically involve a lot of foul balls. He fouled off 510 pitches last season (good for 20th in MLB).

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But he also posted a walk rate of 6.1% in 2023, which ranked 106 out of 133 qualified hitters. He concedes that there were some opportunities to walk that he didn’t capitalize on.

He points to a July 31 game in Miami as an example. Right-hander Edward Cabrera was starting for the Marlins. At the time, Cabrera had a walk rate of 15.2%. The Phillies knew what they were getting.

With runners on first and second in the first inning, Stott worked Cabrera to a 3-1 count, and swung at the next two pitches, which were both out of the zone to strike out and end the inning. He could hear Trea Turner yelling from the on-deck circle.

“Trea was like, ‘They’re trying to walk you!’” Stott said. “It was those at-bats that I kind of threw away, in a sense, by chasing their pitch. And looking back on it, you’re like, maybe they were trying to walk you. But like I said, when you see as many strikes as I do, it’s tough to walk. I’ve got to get better at choosing my spots. I’m just trying to feel the at-bat more.”

Stott does see a lot of strikes. According to Baseball Savant, he saw 52.2% of pitches in the zone last season. That ranks seventh among all qualified hitters in baseball.

This season, his goal is to be selectively aggressive. He wants to be more aware of what the pitcher is trying to do in a given at-bat. He wants to cut down on chasing and cut down on foul balls, in an attempt to get in more favorable counts more often. He believes that more walks will come as a result.

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The key will be finding the time and place to use that aggression. In hitting coach Kevin Long’s opinion, a 0-0 count is that time. Stott swung at the first pitch only 99 times out of 585 at-bats last season. But when he did, he was rewarded: He hit .384/.371/.556 when he swung 0-0, vs. .259/.320/.391 when he didn’t.

“When he hit his grand slam [in the wild-card series] last year, do you know what the count was? It was 0-0,” Long said. “He wants to work an at-bat. What he does not want to do is go up there, swing at the first pitch, and make an out. That’s kind of a waste of an at-bat in his opinion.

“But if he attacks it the right way and hits it the right way, then I’ve got no problem with it. Actually, I think he needs to do more of it. He’s getting fastballs, 0-0, right there. You’ve got to hammer those. This a league where you can’t give the opposing pitcher strike one. You just can’t do it.”

Stott reminds Long in some ways of another second baseman, Robinson Canó. In Long’s estimation, Canó could hit “literally any pitch,” and he thinks Stott can do the same. Stott said it is a “blessing and a curse.”

“My ability to reach certain pitches makes me want to hit them all the time,” he said.

The trick will be finding the right times.

“He’s going to hit,” Long said. “If he hits .280, .290, and he gets 15 more walks, his on-base percentage goes to a whole other level. So there’s a fine line. He doesn’t need to be passive. Especially 0-0. I want him to be more aggressive 0-0. And a lot of times, when you start pouncing on first pitches, the pitchers start going, ‘Man, you gotta be careful with this guy.’

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“So, they’ll start dancing around the strike zone because of that. I think he can gain his walks, and get his on-base percentage up by being more aggressive early in the count. If you’re giving them strike one every time, that’s not a good recipe.

“If there’s a 2-0 count when he gets a fastball right there, I don’t want him to take it. So it’s not about being more passive. It’s about understanding what the opposing pitcher is trying to do, when they’re trying to expand and capitalize.”