PHILADELPHIA — Phillies third baseman Bryson Stott is batting .318 with a .376 on-base percentage in 19 August games. He has an .838 OPS against left-handed pitching this season. But he will not be in the lineup versus Cardinals lefty Quinn Matthews on Saturday night at Citizens Bank Park.
The last time Stott began a game on the bench was June 5, when he had a .647 OPS going into the day. He started Philadelphia’s next 66 games and raised his OPS to .751 with an especially strong recent performance. However, his night off in the second of a three-game series against St. Louis was not about rest or his workload, according to Phillies interim manager Don Mattingly.
“He doesn’t need a rest,” Mattingly said of Stott. “I think he was fine. It’s just really trying to keep everybody in the mix.”
The right-handed-hitting Edmundo Sosa is at third base in Stott’s place. As it’s been since the deadline with a left-handed starter on the mound, Bryan De La Cruz is in left field for Brandon Marsh and Derek Hill is in center field for Justin Crawford. The Phillies are not lined up to face a left-hander in their upcoming road series in Seattle.
“I just got to keep everybody in the mix a little bit,” Mattingly said. “These guys, we don’t hardly see any lefties right now, and these guys got to be able to be ready to play. If I don’t ever put them in there, then it’s tough.”
Reliever throws second live batting practice
Left-hander Tanner Banks threw his second live batting practice since going on the injured list with a strained forearm last month. In full pinstriped uniform, he tossed around 30 pitches to De La Cruz, Sosa and catcher Garrett Stubbs.
It went well, according to Mattingly, who watched from the first-base dugout along with pitching coach Caleb Cotham, assistant pitching coach Mark Lowy and other Phillies personnel. The next step could be for the team to get Banks into games on a minor-league rehab assignment when Philadelphia goes to the West Coast next week. But it will all depend on how Banks feeels.
“We’ll see how he comes out tomorrow,” Mattingly said, “and then we just kind of make decisions on where he goes from there.”
Banks had an impressive 2025 season with the Phillies and established himself as a reliable lefty out of the bullpen. This year, it has been a struggle with a 7.14 ERA in 28 appearances, a stint in the minors and now the injury. He’s not eligible to be taken off the 60-day IL until Sept. 7 at the earliest. The Phillies will have the ability to option Banks to Triple-A when he’s reinstated if they so choose.
Phillies notes
- Shortstop Trea Turner took BP on the field Saturday, something he does not always do. He got off to a better start out of the All-Star break, but the two-time batting champion is hitting .232 with a .650 OPS in August. Turner, the team’s two-hole hitter, is batting .246 with a .299 OBP and .692 OPS in 2026.
“He was good today,” Mattingly said of his BP. “Trea’s more of a feel guy, without having to talk about what he’s trying to do mechanically.”
- In May, Mattingly insisted that Alec Bohm would eventually hit and would “believe that until the day I’m not on this Earth.” The Phillies have shown extreme patience with the impending free agent. But at least for the moment, Bohm is making it pay off with a red-hot August. Is that extra rewarding for Mattingly?
“Well, I could just be saying that, too,” Mattingly said of his prior words of support for Bohm. “But I did believe that. I did believe it. He’s always hit, and he works and he’s got a good swing, right? So all those factors tell you that he’s going to hit. It just may not be at that moment he’s hitting. But in my heart, I knew he was going to hit.”
- Right-hander Brian Keller, who was designated for assignment when the Phillies signed lefty Nestor Cortes and optioned him to Single-A Clearwater, cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Lehigh Valley on Friday.
