A healthy Bryson Stott hopes to move past his down season and return to 2023 form

CLEARWATER, Fla. — If you tuned in to the All-Star Game last July and got a look at the National League’s starting infield, you’d be forgiven for wondering if it was a Phillies theme night.

After all, three-quarters of the Phillies' infield had made the trip to Arlington, Texas, part of a club-record seven representatives. The quarter left behind, second baseman Bryson Stott, wasn’t surprised.

“If I played better, I would have [been there],” Stott said on Monday. “ … In ’23 I thought I had a decent chance. And there’s a lot of good second basemen-slash-infielders in the league, and I just got to play better than that.”

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It was a down year for Stott offensively, with regression in his batting average (.245, down from .280 in 2023) and his power (.356 slugging percentage, down from .419). While the 27-year-old doesn’t want to make excuses for his season, he might have found an explanation.

During a road series against Miami in mid-May, Stott said he “messed up” a nerve in his right elbow, which continued to affect him for the rest of the season.

“It was kind of when I was out in front, fooled, and had that hyperextension that it would make my fingers go numb,” Stott said. “I’d have to call time, then it would feel fine. And I think as I just kept going and going, it got weaker and weaker, and I was trying to compensate with different parts of my body, and it kind of got me into some bad habits.”

Stott said that when he made good contact, his elbow didn’t bother him. But swinging and missing or hitting the ball off the end of the bat would lead to discomfort.

Even so, he never landed on the injured list and continued hitting fifth in the lineup for most of the season.

“It’s a nerve-y thing. It’s sit and rest and hope it calms down,” Stott said. “You just don’t know how long that could be. And obviously I was healthy enough to play and go out there and give it my all, and that’s what I wanted to do. And we did it.

“And if you’re not going to affect the game on the offensive side, you still have two other sides that you could affect the game on. So just try to grind through it and play good defense and run the bases.”

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Phillies manager Rob Thomson said he considered shutting Stott down last season, but that never materialized.

“We talked about it, talked with the trainers. He felt like it wasn’t changing his swing, so we kept running him out,” Thomson said.

Stott acknowledged Monday that in hindsight, he felt that the injury did have an impact on his swing. He did, however, point to one positive that came from the situation: an improvement in decision-making. Stott drew 53 walks in 2024, up from 39 in 2023 and 36 in his rookie year.

For about a month after the season, Stott didn’t do anything at all with his elbow, trying to give it a chance to recover.

“Didn’t golf, didn’t swing. I held the baby with my left arm, just kind of let my right arm just hang to my side and let it calm down,” he said.

After that, Stott followed a normal progression of offseason work. He returned to hitting off the tee and soft toss the week before Thanksgiving, as he usually does. And now that camp has officially opened with the Phillies’ first full-squad workout on Monday, he thinks the injury is behind him.

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Stott took live batting practice against Cristopher Sánchez and Matt Strahm Monday, and when he whiffed, he felt fine.

His goal for the year is simple.

“Do what I did in ’23. Use the whole field,” Stott said. “Obviously just the type of hitter I am, my power’s to right, and I know that the league knows that, and they don’t want to throw the ball in there. Then I got to take my hits to left, obviously. And I’m OK with that, because I can steal second, and I can steal third and things like that.

“We have plenty of guys who are going to hit homers, and my job is to be on when they do.”

Bryce Harper and Aaron Nola missed Monday’s workout with food poisoning, but Thomson said they are both “feeling better.” … Trea Turner was also away with a personal matter but will report to Clearwater on Tuesday and undergo his physical on Wednesday.