Phillies

The Nerdy Stats That Explain Bryson Stott’s Improvement at the Plate

By Luke Arcaini

Published: May 19th, 2026 · 9:06 AM EDT

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Bryson Stott has looked like a totally different hitter in 2026, but the stats have really started to show in the month of May.

I know, you’ll probably read that first sentence and just say “Stott has a .678 OPS, which is good for 129th across the league of qualified hitters.” But if you’ve watched the Phillies, especially over their 16-4 run with Don Mattingly as manager, you know something looks different for the second baseman at the plate.

Stott is hitting the ball as hard as ever, and it’s showing.

Now, smoking the baseball doesn’t always show up on the stat sheet. Honestly, I’m not even saying Stott is “smoking” the baseball. But he’s hitting the ball significantly harder than he has in the past, and it’s showing up in a couple deep stats.

Historically, he had been one of the worst players in baseball when it comes to HardHit Rate:

• 2022: 30th percentile, 36.8% HHR
• 2023: 19th percentile, 35.2% HHR
• 2024: 10th percentile, 30.8% HHR
• 2025: 8th percentile, 29.5% HHR
• 2026: 48th percentile, 41.2% HHR

So, where do you find that success? There are a couple of indicators.

Stott has forever been a “spray the ball” hitter. He’s lived opposite field for a lot of his career, which isn’t a bad thing. Rob Thomson always said that guys need to use the whole field, because when players do that, they tend to find more consistency at the plate. But maybe Stott is the outlier there.

I did some digging into Stott’s swing path year by year, and one stat really jumps off the page.

Stott, for his entire career, has been a “opposite field swing path” player. Stott’s swing path was 6° oppo in 2023, 2° oppo in 2024, and 2° oppo in 2025. 2026? He’s 3° pull side. That doesn’t seem like a big jump, but a 5° difference in swing path can really change a player.

Batting position or “stance” has been a talking point with Stott over the last few years. We’ve seen him adjust his swing to a more Kyle Schwarber-like stance. This is starting to get nerdy, I know. You’re probably telling me to put the graphs down, but I’m going to continue to throw numbers at you. Stott has dropped his “inches between feet” nearly six inches at the plate. He’s standing about 33 inches between his feet, compared to 38 inches last season. With that, his stance has “opened up.” He’s around 8° open in 2026, compared to 4° open in 2025.

I just threw a lot of numbers at you, I understand that. What’s beautiful about baseball is that you won’t see a lot of these with the human eye on the TV. You can notice some, mostly his “new” stance that he’s went back and forth with over the years. Stott spoke to reporters following Monday night’s win, in which he had the go-ahead 2-run homer in the 8th, and had an interesting quote about his early-season slump:

Bryson Stott on how hard it is to not make drastic panic moves when you’re struggling and stick to the process instead pic.twitter.com/gN5iY49QQ4

— OnPattison (@OnPattison) May 19, 2026

What you’ll recognize the most at the plate is the entire point of this story: Bryson Stott is smoking the baseball right now. He’s hitting .254/.287/.593 in May with an .890 OPS, tallying 15 hits, 5 doubles, 10 runs, and 18 RBIs. The Phillies need Stott to be Stott. He’s one player that the Phillies have always shown confidence in, because they know it’s in there. Stott, and Alec Bohm, have both turned their seasons around after tough slumps to start the year, and they’ve been a contributing factor to why the Phillies are 16-4 in their last 20 games and back over .500.