According to Andy Martino, Phillies beat writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer, Matt Stairs wants to return to the Phillies next season for one last hurrah before retiring.

“I’ll play one more year and I’m done,” Stairs told Martino. “I’d like to be back, but that’s a decision for the team. I’m inexpensive, and I don’t complain that I don’t play a lot.”

Stairs is a free agent at the end of this season.

When asked by Martino, assistant general manager Scott Proefrock declined to say whether the team would bring Stairs back for another season, indicating that it is too early to begin discussing free agency.

A more immediate wish of Stairs is to start hitting better, a desire shared by all Phillies’ fans as well. He is batting a meager .205 with four homeruns and just 13 RBIs in 83 at bats on the season. He has gone without a base hit since July 11, and has only two hits since June 28. According to Martino, Stairs was batting .296 on June 28.

Both Stairs and manager Charlie Manuel believe that part of the problem is that lack of at bats Stairs has received. He has accumulated more than 300 at bats in every season he’s been in the majors since 1996. This year, however, he only has 83.

“I love pinch-hitting,” said Stairs. “But [with limited playing time], it’s tough.”

Manuel gave Stairs a lot of at bats in Spring Training, which Stairs believes helped him in the first half of the season. But he hasn’t been able to get him many at bats this season.

“He’s got to have game-situation at-bats,” Manuel said. “When we got him [last August], he had [368] at-bats. He was sharp because he had been playing a lot.”

One way Stairs has tried to stay sharp, according to Martino, is by taking pitches and working the count in the few at bats he does get.

“I enjoy seeing pitches,” he said. “As a guy who doesn’t play a whole lot, I don’t want to swing at the first pitch.”

Maybe he could impart that wisdom to Jimmy Rollins.