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Considering the efficiency he has shown at second base, the brilliance he\u2019s shown at third base, his capacity to play shortstop, his durability, his affability, and his age, Bryson Stott<\/a> surely will be in somebody\u2019s lineup for at least the next five years.<\/p>\n Should it be the Phillies<\/a>\u2019 lineup?<\/p>\n On Thursday, Stott was among the last of the Phillies to shower and dress after the Game 3 wild-card loss in Atlanta ended their season<\/a>. But then, it\u2019s always more of a challenge to get ready when you\u2019re carrying the weight of personal failure on your shoulders with your future in doubt.<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Hayes: Trea Turner is the Phillies\u2019 biggest problem. He knows it: \u2018A lot of that is on me.\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n Stott, who will be 29 on Tuesday, is entering his final season of arbitration and will be a free agent in 2028 (all of this assumes, perhaps naively, that the 2027 season will not be affected by labor strife.) <\/p>\n He might not be expensive, but, if he continues to sputter, will Stott even be worth the roster spot for a Phillies team already heavily invested in contending for a title for the next five to seven years? As expensive, aging players like Trea Turner<\/a> and J.T. Realmuto<\/a> and their diminishing contributions are sure to occupy spots in the lineup, can the Phillies afford to carry even one player who isn\u2019t dynamic at the plate? <\/p>\n Stott\u2019s fun to watch. He is 100% baseball player. His aura is the closest thing the Phillies have had to Chase Utley\u2019s since Ut was traded in 2015, all scruff and gristle muscle and bone and unsettling ferocity, possessed of baseball knowledge beyond his years and baseball instinct beyond his peers.<\/p>\n Nevertheless, considering Stott\u2019s pedestrian offensive production in the recent regular seasons and his disappearances in the recent playoffs, it\u2019s fair to question whether a player like Stott should be in any lineup intent on winning in October, particularly considering Stott\u2019s last three Octobers.<\/p>\n Stott is 6-for-37 in the Phillies\u2019 losses in their first-round collapses of 2024, 2025, and 2026. That\u2019s a .162 average, and it has been consistent: He managed just two hits in each of those series. He has no home runs. Two RBIs. Thirteen strikeouts.<\/p>\n This does not meet expectations.<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Will Don Mattingly return? That\u2019s \u2018Dave\u2019s decision,\u2019 the first of many facing Dombrowski<\/a><\/p>\n He was a first-round pick in 2019 who, at one point, was considered an option to lead off a lineup ahead of a batting champion, an MVP, and a home run king. It\u2019s his baseball DNA. Stott hit leadoff at both UNLV and in the minor leagues. In his second big-league season, 2023, Stott batted leadoff 39 times in a lineup that included monied, veteran leadoff hitters Turner, who\u2019d won a batting title, and Kyle Schwarber<\/a>, who\u2019d led the National League in home runs.<\/p>\n Stott finished 2023 with a .280 average, 15 home runs, and a brilliant future.<\/p>\n His future now is clouded.<\/p>\n Since 2023, Stott\u2019s batting average is .252, he has averaged 11.2 home runs, and he hasn\u2019t moved the needle in eons. He has batted leadoff just 48 times. <\/p>\n He\u2019s the poster child for long, freezing-cold streaks: He hit .216 with a .638 OPS through his first 58 games this season, hit .301 with an .832 OPS in his next 70 games, then reverted to early-season form for the remainder.<\/p>\n His defense is the only thing that keeps him in the lineup, because, as Donna Summer sang, when he\u2019s bad, he\u2019s so, so bad.<\/p>\n \u201cI tell the hitting coaches, if I can just hit .230 in my bad months, my overall numbers will look a lot better,\u201d Stott said. At issue: \u201cTrying to find ways to get out of those ruts, those bad months, as fast as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Murphy: The same structural failures cost the Phillies again in the playoffs. The onus falls on Dave Dombrowski<\/a><\/p>\n That\u2019s part of any hitter\u2019s maturation. Pitchers find weaknesses and exploit them. The hitter must adjust in kind. Stott presents an intriguing history of weaknesses, though. In 2024, four-seam fastballs ate him up. Last year, sliders and curveballs. This season, curves and split-finger fastballs.<\/p>\n Stott studies. Maybe too much. That might be the issue with his postseason woes.<\/p>\n \u201cYou look at how a team pitches you all season and what they\u2019re doing, and you plan going into a game,\u201d Stott said. \u201cThen you get to the playoffs and it could be a complete 180.\u201d<\/p>\n And, after the first time not being served what you thought you\u2019d be served …<\/p>\n \u201cYour initial thought is, \u2018That was one at-bat. They\u2019re gonna go back to what they did for 12 or 13 games.\u2019 But sometimes they don\u2019t,\u201d Stott said. \u201cThen, you\u2019ve got to adjust on the fly. It\u2019s just a giant cat-and-mouse game.\u201d<\/p>\n In that metaphor, Stott mostly has been the mouse.<\/p>\n He pointed to his feeble plate appearance against Braves left-handed reliever Dylan Lee in Game 2. Moments before, Schwarber and Bryce Harper<\/a>, the former MVP, had homered and tied the game. When Stott came to the plate, the afterglow of those heroics overshadowed how badly Stott was overmatched.<\/p>\n Lee threw Stott four fastballs that averaged about 94 mph. The first one was high, and he took it for ball one. The next three were in the top of the strike zone: take, foul, whiff, sit.<\/p>\n The cat ate the mouse.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve never faced Dylan Lee that I didn\u2019t see a slider,\u201d Stott said.<\/p>\n Entering that at-bat Stott was 2-for-4 against Lee, with a hit in each of his previous two plate appearances, but losing this sort of mind game has been typical for him in the last three playoff series.<\/p>\n