February 25, 2026
Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Imagn Images
Bryson Stott's glove isn't in doubt, but is there more to his bat?
Baseball is back — and so are most of the Phillies.
After a dominating 96-win season in 2025 and a devastating early exit to the eventual World Series champions, the Dodgers, the championship window is still open for the Phils, but for how long?
The Phillies will enter 2026 with the fifth best World Series odds (+1500, via FanDuel). Expectations are still high, as is the level of talent in the clubhouse.
Sticking to their organizational mentality that keeping the window open requires keeping the core together — while also opening up some space for an infusion of young talent — a largely familiar group will be returning to comprise the 26-man roster when camp breaks in March.
As we do every preseason, here's a deep dive into each position on the roster and its outlook heading toward Opening Day. We'll continue with second baseman Bryson Stott.
Bryson Stott has come a long way from being that young first-round prospect who was knocking on the door of the Phillies' roster, and in turn, so have the Phillies.
Stott is an established regular at second base now, and the Phillies are consistent postseason contenders.
But the question, and seemingly their biggest hurdle, is whether both of them together have that extra gear to win a World Series.
We're still waiting on that answer.
Stott slashed .257/.328/.391 last season, with 13 homers, 22 doubles, three triples, and 24 stolen bases, batting mostly within the bottom half of the lineup.
And for a large part of last season, he struggled.
He was solid in the field and on the base paths, but at the plate, he couldn't find the contact he was looking for to get on in the first place, which left him batting a low .234 through the first half of 2025.
It wasn't until he took a look at his swing on video nearing the All-Star break that he saw what was going wrong. His hands had crept up way too high in his stance, Stott said back in August, and a reset to lower them, along with consistently hitting in the No. 9 spot at the end of the order, offered the solution.
Through the second half, Stott improved to a .294/.368/.487 slash line, and collected 13 of his 22 doubles and seven of his 13 home runs last season down the stretch.
Then the postseason and the NLDS against the Dodgers came around, and he lost his rhythm again with just two hits and four strikeouts through the four-game series loss. Granted, just about all of the Phillies' hitters went cold.
But it all brings him to this spring.
Stott is 28 now. The formerly known Phillies Daycare of himself, third baseman Alec Bohm, and outfielder Brandon Marsh don't represent the club's youth anymore. They're all established vets in their late 20s, scraping up against their 30s.
And they're all still chasing the same ball, but with much of the same persisting flaws.
Stott's best season was in 2023 – his second – when he hit .280 with career highs in home runs (15) and doubles (32), then belted a grand slam in the Wild Card round against the Marlins.
He wasn't the Phillies' best hitter, but he was one of their toughest, constantly taking pitches and fouling off to extend at-bats, which drove opposing pitchers insane.
But across 2024 and the better part of 2025, that persistence at the plate got away from him until he lowered his hands and tapped back into it last season from late July onward.
The question now is, can Stott keep that? Can he get fully back to being a pest who just won't go away at the plate? Can he be better than that even?
Quietly, compared to the rest of a big-name lineup, the Phillies do need an answer.
Second base across the NL East is a blend of established vets and on-the-rise youth.
Here's a quick look by their 2025 slash lines (batting average/on-base percentage/slugging percentage), their projected ones for 2026, and their WAR (wins above replacement) for last season:
| Player, Club | 2025 slash line | 2026 proj. | 2025 WAR (Gms) |
| Bryson Stott, PHI | .257/.328/.391 | .258/.323/.393 | 2.2 (147) |
| Marcus Semien, NYM | .230/.305/.364 | .242/.315/.400 | 3.3 (127) |
| Ozzie Albies, ATL | .240/.306/.365 | .255/.316/.416 | 2.1 (157) |
| Xavier Edwards, MIA | .283/.343/.353 | .291/.355/.380 | 3.2 (139) |
| Nasim Nuñez, WSH | .232/.297/.402 | .248/.327/.401 | 0.7 (39) |
Stott, 28, will be entering year 5.
Semien will be going into year 14 and his first with the Mets after the Texas Rangers traded him for Brandon Nimmo back in November. At 35, he's put a lot of major league miles on himself, and hit just .230 last season, but the Mets seem to have optimism that he still has a bit left in the tank, while having the assurance of rotating Brett Baty in now that Bo Bichette will occupy third in Queens.
Albies, 29 and approaching year 10, is a longtime Braves staple who doesn't expect to be going anywhere, though possibly for a club whose contending window closed.
Edwards, 26, reached base frequently last season, stole 27 bags, and might just be set for a breakout season on a Marlins team that could make some noise, too.
Nuñez at 25, meanwhile, will be looking to play his first full season in the majors on a Washington team that is vey much trying to find itself.
As it's been ever since he got here with the 2022 trade deadline, utilityman Edmundo Sosa will be the first name called whenever Stott needs a break at second, and all signs point to him continuing to be excellent as a backup.
Long-term, Stott is under team control through 2027, and doesn't figure to be going anywhere until then.
Behind him, Aidan Miller remains as the top infield prospect in the Phillies' pipeline, but if a spot opens up for him, more than likely, it'll be at third base.
Aroon Escobar, the fifth-ranked prospect in the Phillies' farm system, per MLB Pipeline, is the immediate second baseman who would be next in line, so to speak. An international signing from 2022, the 21-year-old progressed up to Double-A Reading last season, where he had just four hits across 22 at-bats and five games once he got there – one of them, though, was a triple.
He needs time, and you probably won't see Escobar's name mentioned near the major league roster for another couple of years.
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