Three Alec Bohm thoughts as trade rumors swirl

Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm is one of the more prominent trade candidates on the market.

The 28-year-old former first-round pick is coming off the best full season of his career, slashing .280/.332/.448 with 15 home runs, 97 RBIs and 44 doubles on his way to his first All-Star appearance. Much of that production was front loaded thanks to a scorching hot March/April and he teetered off in the second half. He spent time on the injured list with a hand injury and struggled at the plate upon his return.

Many will remember Bohm’s 2024 as the year where he took a step forward and raised his offensive game to a level we haven’t seen since his debut in 2020. Others will remember the last act, a benching in the postseason that was a culmination of weeks — perhaps years — of frustration regarding Bohm’s methods of dealing with the ups-and-downs of the game.

It could take a while for his market to fully develop. In the meantime, here are three thoughts regarding Bohm as rumors continue to swirl.

Bohm’s postseason benching hurts his trade value

You can’t blame Rob Thomson for not thinking about this when he made the decision to bench Bohm after Game 1 of the NLDS. There’s no doubt that opposing teams will press the Phillies front office on this issue when they call on Bohm.

Was the benching warranted? Probably, but the timing was strange. Thomson’s reasoning behind playing Edmundo Sosa over Bohm was to infuse some energy into the club. That was an indirect shot at Bohm, but it was concerning that we were even having that conversation after one playoff loss. Nobody would have been talking about energy if the bullpen held the Mets scoreless in the eighth and ninth, or if the lineup figured out how to hit the ball in the shadows. Maybe the message should have been delivered during the regular season, when the stakes were much lower and Bohm had more time to take in the message the Phillies tried to send.

As Ken Rosenthal and Matt Gelb have reported, teams view Bohm as a “good, not great player.” The Phillies are putting a high price tag on him, as evidenced by the team reportedly asking the Mariners for one of George Kirby or Logan Gilbert in exchange for Bohm. If you’re Seattle, you’re laughing and asking the Phillies why we would trade one of our aces for a player who got benched in the postseason.

That’s just how trade negotiations work. If you’re selling, you set an astronomically high price and then gradually come down. Unfortunately for the Phillies, they may have tipped their hand on how they feel about Bohm when they sat him during the NLDS. Interested teams will let the Phillies know they haven’t forgotten about that.

The Phillies don’t necessarily need more hitters with Bohm’s approach

One of the main arguments against trading Bohm is that he is the type of hitter the Phillies should be looking to add. Among Phillies hitters with at least 300 plate appearances, his 14.2% strikeout rate in 2024 was the lowest. He also finished second in the National League in doubles with 44.

If you believe that the Phillies need more contacted-oriented hitters, then it makes plenty of sense to keep Bohm. But more contact isn’t exactly what the Phillies need.

What the Phillies really need to be is a lineup that’s tougher to pitch to. That means longer at-bats, more walks and better swing decisions. Bohm’s contact abilities combined with his aggressiveness can sometimes hurt him as evidenced by some of his at-bats during the postseason.

Here are the number of pitches he saw in each plate appearance of the postseason along with the result:

• 2 (pop out)
• 1 (ground out)
• 2 (ground out)
• 6 (ground out)
• 2 (pop out)
• 2 (ground out)
• 1 (single, out at second)
• 1 (ground out)
• 1 (line out)
• 3 (ground out)
• 6 (fielder’s choice)
• 6 (walk)
• 5 (force out)

Being a quick out is not what the Phillies need out of a middle-of-the-order bat like Bohm. That combined with more swing-and-miss from other parts of the lineup led to a disastrous showing in the NLDS against the Mets. The Dodgers grinding out Mets pitching on the way to multiple lopsided victories in the NLCS emphasized the Phillies lineup’s shortcomings.

The Phillies will ask their hitters this spring to be open to making changes to how they operate at the plate. When asked about his aggressiveness after Game 4, Bohm expressed confidence that his way is the right way for him.

“I think that just gets noticed because when I swing at the first pitch, I usually put it in play and hit it,” Bohm said. “I don’t foul it off. I don’t swing and miss. So the at-bat ends right there and then and I don’t get a hit. And ‘Oh, he’s swung at the first pitch. He needs to see pitches.’ But, I’m up there. I’m an aggressive hitter. I’m not going to change who I am.

“That’s how I’ve been my whole career. That is what’s gotten me here. And if they throw the ball over the plate, I’m ready to hit it. And I’m not going to think too much about all that other stuff and just go up there and every time I stand there with the bat on my shoulder and see a pitch, it’s right down the middle. So, you know, it’s a double-edged sword.”

When Bohm was one of the best hitters on the planet in March/April, he was consistently making good contact early in the count on pitches in the zone. Of his 41 base hits during the first month of the season, 18 came on either the first or second pitch of the at-bat. Only three of those 18 pitches were outside the strike zone.

His success rate on getting hits by swinging at pitches very early in the count was much higher in March/April than it was over the rest of the season. Through the first month of the season, 40% of the pitches Bohm put in play during the first two pitches of an at-bat became hits. From May to September, the success rate was around 30%. It partly explains the difference between Bohm being on the best hot streak of his career to start the year vs. what happened after April.

To his credit, Bohm also took his walks during the first month of the season. He ran a 12% walk rate in March/April, but that number dropped to 5% from May through September.

When all is right, Bohm’s approach works brilliantly. But when he’s off, his inability to work at-bats due to his aggressiveness and ability to make contact with just about any pitch he sees becomes a problem. It’s harder to ignore in the postseason when a team’s ability to grind out the opposing pitching staff matters a lot more over a five- or seven-game series.

If the Phillies keep Bohm, how he responds will be fascinating

The great Jim Salisbury wrote a fantastic story earlier this season on Bohm’s growth as a person over the years. The once quiet and timid Nebraska kid beamed with confidence as he was in the best stretch of his career. It was a far cry from where he was a few years ago. He was benched by Joe Girardi after making three errors in a series in August of 2021, demoted to Triple-A Lehigh Valley and called up for the final week of the season as the Phillies made a push for a division title.

He endured more adversity the following spring as he fought for a spot on the roster. His name was also quietly being floated around in trade discussions. It all led to the “I hate this place” moment that inadvertently facilitated a breakthrough for Bohm. He has improved both at third and at the plate ever since he made those three errors in the first three innings against the Mets.

He’ll face another wave of adversity next spring, whether he’s in camp with the Phillies or not. If he reports to Clearwater in February, he’ll have to move forward from both a disappointing ending to last season and the loud offseason regarding his availability in trades.

If you’re Bohm, that sounds a bit daunting, but all he has to do is remember that this too shall pass. The stakes were much higher earlier in his career and he got through it to see the other side. If he continued to struggle after that pivotal day in 2022, he likely would have been traded to a team that would not have been as patient with him. Who knows where he would be at right now if he had let those struggles get to him.

It’s easy to look at this situation and conclude that there’s no way Bohm’s Phillies career can recover from this. Maybe a bridge was burned between the team and player and a trade is ultimately what’s best for both sides. But don’t underestimate Bohm’s resiliency if he ends up playing out his final two years under team control in Philadelphia.

Enter To Win A Free Phillies Hoodie From Shibe Vintage Sports