PHILADELPHIA – When Matt Stairs swapped his Phillies broadcaster polo for a uniform he last wore nearly a decade ago and traded his bird’s eye view for a seat at the dugout railing, the newly appointed Phillies hitting coach, who’d just inherited the worst offense in baseball, couldn’t wait to get to work.

Spending 2014 to 2016 as an analyst on Phillies television broadcasts diagnosing swings for the majors’ least-productive offense, he threw his hat into the ring last offseason when the hitting coach job was vacated after Steve Henderson’s offense scored the fewest runs in baseball.

Having played 19 seasons of big league baseball, Stairs experienced his struggles. Anyone in the game that long does. He also experienced his triumphs. Anyone in the game that long figured something out. He channeled both first-hand experiences to guide hitters toward the most central hitting concept — not giving away at-bats.

“I go by experience of what I did to give at-bats away,” Stairs said days before the season ended. “That’s the biggest thing for me. Don’t do what I did because at the end of the year you’re going, ‘Man, why didn’t I change this certain thing.’”

Now, Stairs’ job hangs in the balance as the Phillies search for a new manager, one who will ultimately shape coaching staff decisions. Until then, Stairs says he will wait instead of actively searching for a new job. “You put feelers out there but who am I going to call? I’ve got no contacts,” he said referencing all his time spent in Philadelphia, making it clear he would like to stay put.

“You’re hoping that the next [manager] that comes in says, ‘We want Stairsy here because he knows the hitters,’” Stairs said.

That wouldn’t be a tough conclusion to draw. By every measure and every alphabetic combination under the sun, the offense improved under Stairs’ watch. That’s enough to satisfy most, and rightfully so. But if you adjust the telescope to view what Stairs stressed from the get-go — often a more insightful method of evaluation akin to holding politicians to their campaign promises — the offense’s advancements are even more apparent.

These are three of Stairs’ stated keys from the onset: see more pitches, hit good fastballs early in the count and utilize the middle part of the field with a gap-to-gap mentality.

“A lot of the time people think ‘we’re hitting off fastball.’ We’re hitting off our location early, that’s why you have to become a stubborn hitter, which leads into more pitches per at-bat,” Stairs said.

His famous Game 4 National League Championship Game homer is proof of the “stubborn” mindset. Stairs let the rare fastball go by for strike one from the Dodgers’ Jonathan Broxton, but stayed with his program, spitting on a down-and-in slider and a pair of fastballs outside before Broxton, forced to come back in the zone, laid up a 95 mph heater that Stairs mashed into oblivion. Even though Stairs passed on the early fastball, he maintained his approach and was rewarded. Had Stairs given in and chased that enticing 0-1 down-and-in slider, that homer likely never happens. Maybe the World Series doesn’t either.

Plate discipline, the apple of the Phillies front office’s eye, advanced under Stairs, evident in a 70-walk increase from 2016, when the team drew the second-fewest walks in baseball. The Phillies jumped from the 29th best walk-rate at 7.1 percent to 22nd in baseball this season at 8.1 percent, not a blistering pace by any means – but given where they were last year, they made up about three-quarters of the gap toward reaching league average. As a whole, the Phillies increased their pitches seen per plate appearance more than all but four teams from last season. (Stairs specifically noted his delight in the team’s increased patience in series openers, forcing opponents to tire out their bullpen early. The Phillies played above-.500 baseball in series when they made the Game 1 starter throw at least four pitches per batter.)

Just a slice, albeit an important, future-facing slice, of the team’s increased plate discipline came in a late-season burst of free passes from Rhys Hoskins and J.P. Crawford. In the season’s final 19 games, Hoskins and Crawford each drew 16 walks — each second only to Aaron Judge in that span — for a total of 32. The rest of the offense drew 39 combined.

Each of the 11 Phillies with as many at-bats as Hoskins sported a worse walk-rate than the rookie’s 17.5 percent, which was a full 6.9 percent higher than any regular. Crawford’s 18.4 percent walk-rate was tops on the team and the highest for any Phillie with at least 50 plate appearances (he actually had 87) since 2009. Who looks up to Crawford from second place on that list? Matt Stairs.

Crawford and Hoskins’ walking prowess makes up for a lack of it from fellow rookies Nick Williams and Jorge Alfaro. But the rest of the Phillies mimic this improvement — of the eight Phillies with at least 100 at-bats each in 2016 and 2017, six walked as much or more this season. The only two who didn’t were Aaron Altherr, who improved his production and power when Stairs tweaked his hand placement, and Odubel Herrera, who maintained his production with better power and bat-to-ball skills, despite swinging (and missing) more often. Barring trades, they’re your starting right and center fielders next season.

Another preseason talking point harkened back to Stairs’ philosophy at the plate, attacking good fastballs early in the count. The offense Stairs took over ranked 29th in baseball in hitting fastballs early, here designated as counts 0-0, 0-1, 1-0, and 1-1. Bench coach Larry Bowa described the team during spring training to The New York Times’ Tyler Kepner as a group with “a tendency to take a lot of fastballs. If you watched [Stairs] hit, he was a dead-red fastball hitter.”

More nuggets taken from Stairs’ experience.

Philadelphia improved its batting average on early fastballs 37 points, more than any team in baseball, paired with the second-highest increases in slugging percentage and weighted on-base average. Of that same eight-player pool with 100 at-bats each of the last two seasons, five of the six who figure into the team’s long-term future improved here. Stairs seems to be getting through, especially to those with a future in Philadelphia.

Stairs’ third hitting crux was working gap-to-gap. Like in the previous two areas, the team improved here too, raising its OPS by 35 points on balls up the middle, just shy of league-average production after coming in at 22nd in baseball in 2016.

“What I’m really happy with this year is the amount of walks that we’ve had over from a year’s time and the amount of doubles, which for me is huge,” Stairs said. “Working the gaps and not giving at-bats away and I think they’ve done a very good job of maintaining — not giving at-bats away. Not all the time, but that’s the hardest thing in baseball.”

Everything is connected.

The statistical advances made in 2017 reflect positively on Stairs, but as he stated early on, he hopes the manager wants him to stay because he “knows the hitters.” Stairs does, and by all accounts communicates well with them, especially the first-time big leaguers.

“With the younger guys coming up asking questions, working with them in the cage, having the trust of guys coming up and asking you right away what you see. I think the relationship I’ve built with the players has been tremendous and it’s a trust thing, it really is,” Stairs said. Nick Williams agreed such a relationship isn’t a given.

Stairs immediately impacted multiple Phillies, most notably quieting Williams’ leg kick — to the point that Williams said he couldn’t believe he ever hit the ball with his old, more violent stride — and lowering Altherr’s hands to great success. Both have clicked with him.

“He’s been great,” Williams said of Stairs. “There’s times day after day during a game I’m asking him a little something. Even on hits, for the pitches before, I know it’s a hit so he’d be happy with it, but at times you try to pick something. … He helps a lot, just even small tweaks.”

As a player, Stairs also sought out the hitting coach regardless of the outcome. “I could hit a home run and ask him and hit a 20-hopper to first base and ask him the same thing,” Stairs said.

“It’s always good to have a guy who knows hitting so well, and you build a relationship and you trust him like in spring training,” Williams continued, recalling the stride work he did with Stairs before his minor league season began.

“No one has ever messed with my swing because I’ve done good using it at every level I’ve played. I’m not saying I went out on a limb, but I trusted him. What he was saying made sense. … It ended up working, my home runs went up a ton. I think my highest in my career was 17, I don’t even know how many I have right now.”

Between Triple-A and the majors, Williams hit 27 this season.

Altherr too tapped into career-best power and wants to see his hitting coach back.

“I hope he’s back,” Altherr told Todd Zolecki of MLB.com. “He has helped me out a lot. I owe a lot to him for what he’s done to me. He’s really good with everybody. Everybody goes to him.”

That freedom and ease of communication seems to be rubbing off, Stairs says.

“I just see the communication on the bench between players is tremendous. … That’s the key of winning championships,” Stairs said. “That’s how we were in ‘08 and ‘09, Jimmy Rollins would come back and he’d say ‘This guy’s got nothing, his fastball is flat his curveball you can see it pop out of his hand, you’re going to be able to see it, lay off his curveball.’ That’s what I’m seeing now in the dugout.”

However, Stairs wouldn’t get ahead of himself. This offense is clearly improved from the outset, ranking 10th in the majors in runs in the second half, but early success for first-timers doesn’t guarantee it rolling over to a full season of play. “Not saying they’re not one hitter away, but they’re dangerous,” he said.

Everything points to Stairs having done well in his first year, while fostering a environment for players of all ages to tap into his wealth of hitting knowledge. The team he inherited ranked near the bottom of the league in those three categories he aimed to improve, and by season’s end they were at the very least respectable in all, if not significantly better. Yet, Stairs resides in this liminal space between working for the Phillies and not, subject to the whims of a manager who does not yet exist.

But for now, he’s done his part, making his mark on those players likely destined for a career in red pinstripes, a blossoming young corps that apparently forced the front office’s hand into firing Pete Mackanin. Stairs can only wait and hope that the next skipper agrees, and that he doesn’t suffer the same fate.

“I’m happy with the direction this team is going, I really am. I’d love to be a part of it,” he said. “If it doesn’t happen it doesn’t happen, but I think that the Philly fans have seen this young talent coming up here and they’ve turned the corner with the offense.”

Top photo: Bill Streicher/USA TODAY Sports