Philadelphia Phillies Star Third Baseman "Exceeding" Expectations This Season

While he has gotten better every year of his career, the Philadelphia Phillies star infielder has done more than that this season.

Aug 25, 2024; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Philadelphia Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm (28) fields a ground ball in the second inning against the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium. / Peter Aiken-USA TODAY Sports

The Philadelphia Phillies have been one of the better offenses in baseball en route to back-back-back National League Championship Series appearances, and even making a World Series. They have had the same core throughout, including Alec Bohm. While he has had ups and downs, he's steadily gotten better every year and MLB.com named him as a player who is exceeding expectations.

This isn't to say that Bohm was not good in 2023. In fact, up until this season it had been the best of his career. He slashed .274/.327/.437 and set career highs in home runs (20), doubles (31), RBIs (97) and OPS .765.

There was excitement surrounding the 28-year-old coming into 2024 and he has taken his game to a new level already and improved in every sense of the word.

All of his slashline numbers are up from last season, including his slugging percentage rising nearly 30 points and his OPS over 40 points. In 128 games, he's already set a career high in doubles with 43 and only needs 10 more RBIs to set a career mark in that category, too.

The third baseman was named to his first All-Star team this season and even participated in the Home Run Derby. It's a year of firsts and new bests for him. So, what's the reason for it? MLB.com has a very simple answer.

While Bohm has always been good at avoiding strikeouts, not even exceeding 100 last season, he has not been a very good fastball hitter in his career.

Last season, he had a batting average of .249 against fastballs, while the league average was .259. It seems as he has worked on that very skill this season, as he is now hitting .306 when facing fastballs. His run value against that pitch is 11, which is top 15 in baseball.

With a top ten strikeout rate among qualified hitters and his improvements on hitting fastballs, he has been able to improve in other aspects at the plate.

Bohm's hard hit rate is up from 55 percent last season all the way to a 77 percent this year. On op of that, his barrel rate has jumped from 23 percent to 41 percent.

The All-Star's production at the plate isn't the only thing that has improved, either. He ended last season in the 12th percentile of Outs Above Average, and now sits in the 90th percentile. He has improved dramatically on defense.

Prior to the season, Bohm was projected for a 1.4 fWAR and .736 OPS by FanGraphs. As it sits currently, he has already accumulated 3.8 fWAR, second on the team among position players, and his OPS is well above that projection.

Alec Bohm has taken a leap every year of his career, but none bigger than this season.