Rookie Bryson Stott putting it all together for Phillies

By Jordan Shusterman
FOX Sports MLB Writer

“It’s funny, I always say that the major leagues is the easiest place to play,” future Hall of Famer Joey Votto shared while mic’d up during this year’s Field of Dreams Game between the Reds and Cubs.

“But you have to be equipped for it,” he continued. “I found when I got called up to the major leagues that the balls were better, the stadiums were better, the scouting … everything about the game, behind the scenes and the game on the field, is built for the player to succeed.

“But it will absolutely swallow you.”

Votto’s reflection on the early part of his career came in response to a question about his teammate Nick Lodolo, a 24-year-old left-hander in the midst of a stellar rookie campaign.

However, Votto’s insight also serves as an appropriate backdrop for the season of another promising National League rookie, Phillies shortstop Bryson Stott, who delivered a dramatic, pinch-hit, game-tying RBI double on Tuesday — fittingly, against Votto’s Reds.

Like Lodolo, Stott was a first-rounder out of college in the 2019 MLB Draft, selected by the Phillies out of UNLV with the 14th pick. They are two of several players selected in the first round that year who are now part of this year’s strong rookie class, including Adley Rutschman, Bobby Witt Jr. and George Kirby, each of whom, like Lodolo, has already found considerable levels of success in the big leagues.

For Stott, though, it has been a much bumpier ride.

Stott is one of the headliners of what Phillies interim manager Rob Thomson and veteran teammates such as Bryce Harper have lovingly referred to as the “daycare” portion of the roster: younger players including Stott, Alec Bohm, Matt Vierling and Nick Maton who don’t have the MLB experience of Harper, Nick Castellanos, Kyle Schwarber or JT Realmuto but are still crucial to Philadelphia’s success.

Since he took the helm in early June following the firing of Joe Girardi, Thomson has prioritized getting playing time for Stott and his fellow “daycare” members, a noted departure from Girardi’s preference for veterans. This mindset ultimately led to the release of veteran shortstop Didi Gregorius on Aug. 4 in favor of handing Stott the every-day shortstop job.

Granted, Gregorius was struggling mightily and arguably deserved to be replaced, but it still appeared to be a leap of faith for the Phillies to toss the keys to one of the most important positions on the field to a rookie in the middle of an urgent race for a postseason spot.

To that point, Stott’s rookie campaign had already seen several peaks and valleys. A strong spring training earned him a spot on the Opening Day roster, though at that point his playing time appeared more likely to come primarily in a backup role. After posting two multi-hit games in his first four career starts, Stott went 0-for-16 in his next five games and was demoted to Triple-A.

A knee injury to then-starting shortstop Gregorius necessitated a quick return to the big leagues for Stott on May 8, but he continued to struggle at the plate. On May 30, the shortstop was hitting a paltry .114/.173/.129. For a former first-rounder and top-100 prospect, things weren’t exactly going great.

“You never get a break,” Stott told FOX Sports of facing big-league arms for the first time. “In the minor leagues, no offense to them, but the prospects are kind of scattered around.”

At the highest level, though? “They throw harder. Their pitches move more. They know where it’s going more. … They’re good.”

While meandering around first base amid the cornfields of Iowa this month, Votto continued to reflect: “That first two to three years of your career, you see what this league is really about. It will gobble you up if you don’t have the skill, if you don’t have the talent to handle the rigors of the dailiness of this game.”

As Votto described, things can start to slip away quickly if you aren’t prepared: “An 0-for-4 turns into an 0-for-24.”

In early June, with Gregorius prepared to return, the Phillies could have sent Stott back to Triple-A for a more substantial reset. But Thomson stuck with him and was rewarded with the first legitimate hot streak of Stott’s career. He posted a 1.088 OPS with four homers in his next 11 games, including a walk-off blast against the Angels.

In the process, his OPS climbed from .302 to .585.

But then, just as the all-knowing Votto foretold, the 0-for-4 turned into an 0-for-24 — literally. Hitless in 24 consecutive at-bats from June 12 to June 19, Stott was back in a funk, and his OPS fell back down below .500.

Yet the Phillies believed he had the talent necessary to dig himself out of it, the kind of talent Votto suggested a player needs to get through those early slumps. As Gregorius continued to struggle, Stott kept getting playing time and finally started to find his footing.

By mid-July, things were coming together. He homered in both games of a two-game set in Toronto, including the longest homer of his young career. With that Toronto series, Stott has hit .304/.346/.504 in his past 34 games. His 135 wRC+ and 1.2 fWAR rank fifth among all shortstops in that span. Now that’s the Stott the Phillies were waiting patiently for.

“The more times you do anything, it gets more comfortable,” Stott said. “There’s some guys, obviously, you never get comfortable against them. But you just keep going, and you find their tendencies, and you just try to swing at the right pitches. That’s the biggest thing.”

This mentality has helped Stott find success against even some of the best arms in baseball. Earlier this month, he became the first player ever — yeah, ever — to reach base four times in one game against Max Scherzer, with a double off the right-field wall in the first, a hit-by-pitch in the second and singles to center field in the fourth and seventh innings.

“He’s unbelievable,” Stott said of Scherzer. “I’ve hit some mistakes. It sounds easy to say, but you gotta swing at the right ones. He’s nasty and throws so many pitches, but he’s human, and he’s gonna make a mistake with something. But if you miss one against a guy like that, you’re in trouble.”

With three other hits against the intimidating righty across two games earlier this season, Stott has already recorded the same number of hits against Scherzer (six) as veterans such as Mike Moustakas (42 PA), Anthony Rizzo (26 PA), Bryce Harper (25 PA) and Brandon Crawford (19 PA) — but in a fraction of the opportunities.

The night after his four-peat against Scherzer, Stott was one of just two Phillies to record a hit against Jacob deGrom … but not before he got a taste of what facing the world’s best is really like.

“That place was going nuts, just having deGrom back and Scherzer the night before,” Stott said. “He struck me out on 101 mph, down and in, split both of the lines of the strike zone, and I was like, ‘This is what they’re talking about.’”

The reality is there’s nothing you can do in the minors to prepare for a pitcher like deGrom.

“I’ve seen 100 and 101, but with the command he has and the extension, there’s nothing really like it,” Stott said. “He throws so hard, and his slider moves so much that even if he does make a mistake, it doesn’t get hit very often. He’s the real deal.”

While his overall line of .228/.288/.360 (81 wRC+) remains below league average, Stott has already demonstrated one offensive skill that has undoubtedly helped fuel his recent surge: his ability to make contact, particularly on pitches out of the strike zone.

He doesn’t need a center-cut heater to find himself a base hit. He can cover numerous pitch types in a wide swath of locations both in and out of the strike zone. In fact, Stott’s 82.5% contact rate on pitches swung at out of the strike zone ranks third among hitters with at least 300 plate appearances, behind only bat-to-ball wizards Luis Arraez and Steven Kwan.

It’s also worth noting that this doesn’t mean Stott is up there flailing aggressively at bad pitches. His 28.6% swing rate on pitches out of the strike zone is comfortably better than league average and similar to that of MVP front-runners Aaron Judge and Paul Goldschmidt.

But when Stott does offer, he’s making contact.

Furthermore, Stott is tied with Alex Bregman for the eighth-lowest overall swinging strike rate, at 5.6%, and his 87.4% overall contact rate ranks 11th among hitters with at least 300 PAs. That might not have translated to full-blown offensive production quite yet, but it’s clear that Stott has become one of the tougher outs in the league.

On the whole, the Phillies’ decision to roll with Stott at short seems to have been wise. Philadelphia remains in the thick of the NL wild-card race, and with Harper returning from the injured list soon, the lineup is about to get that much scarier.

The Phillies’ shortstop the last time the team made the postseason? Jimmy Rollins. Which is to say, it has been a while.

With this roster, Stott doesn’t have to be a superstar the way Rollins was during the Phillies’ run of National League dominance from 2007 to ‘11. For now, the team just needs him to be a talented, young player figuring out how to not get swallowed up by the big leagues.

So far, that has been more than enough to keep this team on track to return to October.

Jordan Shusterman is half of @CespedesBBQ and a baseball writer for FOX Sports. He lives in D.C. but is a huge Seattle Mariners fan and loves watching the KBO, which means he doesn’t get a lot of sleep. You can follow him on Twitter @j_shusterman_.