The Philadelphia Phillies have made a change in the leadoff spot against right-handed pitchers. Bryson Stott will now serve as the leadoff hitter instead of Kyle Schwarber against righty starters. Heading into the season, the Phillies decided against maintaining stability in the leadoff spot and made changes. Trea Turner has been batting leadoff against left-handers. Meanwhile, up until April 11, Schwarber had been batting leadoff against right-handers. Stott has been penciled into the lineup as the leadoff hitter in every game he has started since April 11. This means the Phillies have three left-handed batters in the top four spots in the lineup.
Bryson Stott leads off the game with a 97.8 MPH single up the middle.
Trea Turner then follows it up with a double in the gap to put the Phillies on the board—
94.9 MPH, 24° LA, 367 FT
Good to see after a quiet weekend in St. Louis
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Phillies Give Bryson Stott Leadoff Role Against Righties
How It Impacts The Top Of The Order
Stott is looking to have a bounceback year and has been viewed as a potential leadoff hitter for some time. Schwarber now hits fourth behind Bryce Harper against right-handed starters. Phillies manager Rob Thomson told reporters that he made the change to protect Harper, and the thought process behind this is that because Schwarber, who has a 1.038 OPS and a 185 wRC+ and six home runs entering play on Wednesday, is batting directly behind Harper, teams will have to pitch to Harper. Turner still hits second in between Stott and Harper in the Phillies’ new batting order against righties. While Thomson wants to protect Harper, this is likely not the best way to go about it.
Stott’s Performance Leading Off
In four games since the change, Stott has a .235/.278/.412 line with a 91 wRC+ in the leadoff spot. He also has an 11.1% strikeout rate and a 5.6% walk rate in the role. Since moving to the leadoff spot, Stott has a 40.0% hard contact rate, which is the best he has at any spot in the batting order this season. Stott is also hitting the ball to the opposite field 40.0% of the time as the leadoff hitter compared to pulling the ball 33.3% of the time. In 58 career games as a leadoff hitter, Stott has a .252/.293/.335 line with three home runs and 17 RBI. He has a career 72 wRC+ when batting first in the order, to go with a 15.8% strikeout rate and a 5.5% walk rate.
Lineup Construction That Might Be Better
This move also takes Alec Bohm out of the cleanup spot against right-handed starting pitchers. While Stott hitting leadoff is an interesting idea, having Turner hit leadoff, followed by Harper and then Schwarber, might be the ideal lineup construction. Turner has been a leadoff hitter for a significant portion of his career. Furthermore, Turner batting leadoff with Harper and Schwarber following allows for Nick Castellanos to bat cleanup. This would break up the Phillies’ left-handed hitters more in the order. The Phillies have a lot of left-handed hitters, so it is necessary to avoid stacking them too much. Turner also has a better walk rate, OBP, OPS, and wRC+ as a leadoff hitter than Stott does. If this current experiment of batting Stott leadoff against righties ends up not working out, this could be the Phillies’ next alternative.
