The Phillies took a risk when they reshuffled their defense to make Luis Arraez feel more at home, and the move looked especially dicey because it meant pulling Bryson Stott away from second base and parking one of their better defenders at third. Instead of creating a problem, though, the switch keeps looking like a win.
Bryce Harper’s glove is easier to hide in right field, and now Stott is turning the hot corner into his own showcase. Over the weekend, he flashed all over the place at third base as Philadelphia swept the Los Angeles Angels and kept its hot streak rolling.
Stott makes the impossible look routine 😮💨 pic.twitter.com/ZE23yTceLY
- NBC Sports Philadelphia (@NBCSPhilly) August 30, 2026
The numbers back up what the eye test says. Stott has piled up four outs above average in just 194 innings at third base, which ties him for third among all big league third basemen with at least 190 innings. Manny Machado, Alex Bregman, and Joey Ortiz are the only players ahead of him, all sitting at six OAA.
What makes Stott’s run even louder is how little he’s played there compared with the rest of the group. Every other player in that top 10 has logged at least 491 innings.
Stott is the lone outlier, and that’s why his work jumps off the page. If you stretch his production across a full-season workload of about 1,100 innings, he’d land at 22.68 OAA.
Round that to 23, and you’re talking about a ridiculous number. For comparison, Ke’Bryan Hayes posted 22 OAA last season, and he’s the kind of glove-first player who lives off that reputation.
The Phillies, as a team, have been better defensively since the trade deadline. They entered with a -12 OAA that ranked 21st through August 3.
Since then, they’ve climbed to 19th at -10 OAA. Stott has been the main reason for that move up the board.
Even if the rest of the defensive reshuffle doesn’t produce much more, Philadelphia is still in better shape because of Stott. More progress from the other new alignments would obviously help, but it’s hard to argue with the results so far.
There’s been an offensive carryover, too. Since the trade deadline, Stott is hitting .286/.400/.393 with a 124 wRC+.
He was also robbed of a home run by Wade Meckler in Anaheim. Harper and Alec Bohm have been scorching as well.
The broader takeaway is simple: the Phillies’ new setup hasn’t rattled them. Sometimes these kinds of changes can throw a team off and spark slumps, but here the opposite has happened. Stott, especially, looks locked in, and he’s doing it with Gold Glove caliber defense at third base.
He also got through an injury scare last week without any lingering effects, which matters because he’s become an even bigger piece of this team than many expected.
In Other News...
Phillies May Have A Luis Arraez Problem They Didn't Expect
The Phillies deadline gamble on Luis Arraez has looked like a shrewd one almost from the moment it was made. Since bringing in the second baseman, Philadelphia has played as well as anyone in the majors, and Arraez has fit neatly into the middle of the order behind Bryce Harper while giving the club steadier defense than it got before. For a team built to contend, that kind of seamless addition is exactly what it hoped to get in July.
What has emerged now is a different kind of concern, one the Phillies probably did not anticipate when they swung the deal. Arraezs production and all-around fit have boosted his value, and that means his free agency profile is climbing at the same time Philadelphia is enjoying the benefits of having him. If he keeps performing at this level, he is likely to draw plenty of attention this offseason, which leaves the Phillies facing a familiar contenders dilemma: the better the rental, the harder it can be to keep him. [Read more 🡒]
Phillies Just Turned Gage Wood Into A Frustrating September Debate
Gage Wood spent his first full pro season giving the Phillies a reason to think ahead, moving through High-A and Double-A and showing enough promise to keep his name in the conversation. As a 2025 first-round pick, he represents the kind of arm the organization wants to nurture carefully, and his work this year has at least put him on the radar as a future piece.
But when September call-ups arrived, the Phillies chose a different route for the expanded roster, adding right-hander Grant Holman instead of giving Wood the bump. Holman brings more experience but less upside, and the decision leaves Wood in the awkward spot so many young pitchers know well: close enough to matter, not quite close enough to get the call. [Read more 🡒]
Phillies Are Finally Peaking At The Exact Time Fans Hoped
The Phillies did what contenders are supposed to do in late summer, ripping through August with a 21-7 record and giving the clubhouse the kind of momentum that tends to change the conversation around a team. It was a month that blended strong starting pitching, timely production and a roster that looked better after the trade deadline, with Cristopher Snchez, Andrew Painter, Aaron Nola, Zack Wheeler and Bryson Stott all playing major roles in the surge.
What makes the stretch stand out even more is how rare some of it has been in Phillies history. For the first time since August 1991, they swept four series of three games or more in a single month, a sign of a team not just winning but finishing off opponents with consistency. The bigger question now is whether this is the start of the October run fans have been waiting for, or simply the latest hot streak in a season that still has more to prove. [Read more 🡒]