Categories: Analysis

On pace for historic season, Alec Bohm is now as important as ever to the Phillies

Alec Bohm is in his fifth season with the Phillies.(Grace Del Pizzo/Phillies Nation)

The Phillies reached the midway point in their 2024 season on Thursday night after a 7-4 loss to the Miami Marlins. In the loss, Alec Bohm went 0-for-3 with an RBI sacrifice fly that tied the game in the bottom of the seventh inning.

The run Bohm drove in was his 65th RBI of the year. He now leads the National League in that category, ahead of Marcell Ozuna of the Atlanta Braves, who has 64 RBIs. The Phillies third baseman has been a huge part of his team’s offensive success this season as their primary cleanup hitter.

Bohm became even more important to the club’s lineup on Friday as both Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber — two of the club’s most important and best hitters — were placed on the 10-day injured list. Bohm, along with others, will be looked upon to help carry the offense with Harper and Schwarber on the shelf. Bohm is batting third in the Phillies’ lineup on Friday night.

On Friday, manager Rob Thomson said he doesn’t expect Harper or Schwarber to be out for long. There’s no timetable for either of their respective returns, but Thomson mentioned he’s hopeful both could be back within 10 to 14 days.

For however long Harper and Schwarber are out for, Bohm’s bat will have to help carry the load for as long as they’re on the shelf. Harper has been one of the game’s most productive hitters since May 1, slashing .342/.429/.647 with 14 home runs and 40 RBIs in that span. Schwarber has been getting on base a lot atop the Phillies’ lineup this season with a .373 on-base percentage.

With the way Bohm has performed this year, there’s certainly reason to believe he’s up to the task of leading the Phillies lineup.

Bohm is enjoying the most success he’s ever had in the majors. He’s slashing .301/.352/.487 with a major-league-leading 28 doubles, nine home runs and those 65 RBIs. It’s not a lock, but Bohm also seems likely to start for the NL at third base in this year’s All-Star game. It would be the first All-Star nod of his career.

Of the Phillies’ 81 games, Bohm has appeared in 79 of them. If he were to keep his current pace up throughout the rest of the season, his doubles, home runs and RBIs would reach a combination of totals we haven’t seen in nearly 90 years.

The 27-year-old right-handed hitter is on pace for 56 doubles, 18 home runs and 130 RBIs. The last time a hitter posted 50-plus doubles, 20 or fewer home runs and 120-plus RBIs in a single season was 1936 when Joe Medwick did so for the St. Louis Cardinals.

If Bohm does accomplish the feat, he’d become the 10th player ever to have such a season and just the seventh during the Live-Ball Era (1920-present).

Here’s the list of players who have had seasons with 50-plus doubles, 20 or fewer home runs and 120-plus RBIs in baseball history:

Tip O’Neill, St. Louis Browns, 1887
Hugh Duffy, Boston, 1894
Ed Delahanty, Philadelphia Phillies, 1899
Tris Speaker, Cleveland Indians, 1923
Harry Heilmann, Detroit Tigers, 1927
Johnny Hodapp, Cleveland Indians, 1930
Kiki Cuyler, Chicago Cubs, 1930
Charlie Gehringer, Detroit Tigers, 1934
Joe Medwick, St. Louis Cardinals, 1936

Of those nine, seven — Duffy, Delahanty, Speaker, Heilmann, Cuyler, Gehringer and Medwick — are in the Hall of Fame.

If the parameters were used with more precision to be on par with Bohm’s current on-pace totals, he’d become just the third player ever to hit 56 or more doubles, no more than 18 homers and drive in 130 or more runs in a single season, joining Speaker (59 2B, 17 HR, 130 RBIs) and Medwick (64 2B, 18 HR, 138 RBIs).

In terms of Phillies franchise history, Bohm would be the first Phillie since Bobby Abreu (50) in 2002 to record 50 or more doubles in a single season and just the fourth Phillie ever to reach that high of a doubles total. He’d also post the 17th 130-plus RBI season in franchise history. The last player to drive in 130-plus runs in a single season was Ryan Howard in 2009 (141).

Hall of Famer Chuck Klein holds the record for most doubles (59) and RBIs (170) in a season in Phillies franchise history. Klein reached both of those totals in 1930.

Bohm is on pace for a historic season. And, for now, he’s perhaps his club’s most important hitter.

Whether or not he accomplishes said historic season will depend on him staying consistent throughout the summer and into September. He cooled off significantly in May and early June after starting the year on a white-hot streak. Over the last few weeks, though, he’s picked things up at the plate, evidenced by his .933 OPS over his last 15 games — a performance level the Phillies will certainly need without Harper and Schwarber taking at-bats.

If Bohm does join the list of players to record a 50-plus double, no-more-than 20 home run and 120-plus RBI season, it would certainly be a throwback campaign. Most players who have the power to post high doubles totals have the ability to leave the yard on a large number of occasions, too. But Bohm has never focused solely on trying to drive the ball over the outfield fence — a trait that could help put him on a rather interesting shortlist that no player has joined in 88 years.