Philadelphia Phillies Third Baseman Is Ascending To A New Level

Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm has been a staple for the team since 2020, but he is having his real breakout in 2024.

Jun 17, 2024; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Phillies third base Alec Bohm (28) celebrates his home run in the dugout during the fifth inning against the San Diego Padres at Citizens Bank Park. Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports / Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

The Philadelphia Phillies drafted Alec Bohm out of Wichita State with the third overall pick in 2018 as what would be a new cornerstone for the Fightins' franchise. He rushed through the minors and wound up finishing second in NL Rookie of the Year voting in 2020. In 2024, his fifth major league season, it is all coming together for Bohm, and he has fully broken out.

Bohm has not been a bad player by any means, though. He has had an up and down career, even earning boos from Phillies fans, but he has been a league average hitter since he came up. In his first four seasons, Bohm had posted a career 101 OPS+ with a .731 OPS. While he hasn't been the biggest home run threat, he has been a doubles machine in the middle of the Philadelphia lineup.

2024 has seen the 27-year-old kick it into a new gear. In Bohm's first 69 games, he is slashing .302/.355/.475 with a 136 OPS+ and currently leads the league with 26 doubles. He's still not hitting a ton of home runs, with six, but he currently sits second in the NL with 60 RBI.

His counting stats have taken a tick up, but everything under the hood has improved as well. He has raised his walk rate a bit, while also lowering his strikeout rate 2.1 percent from last season up to this point.

That's not all, though. His batted ball data has improved pretty significantly from last year. He is pulling the ball about seven percent more than he was, and has seen an uptick in his average exit velocity. Maybe most importantly of all, he is barreling the ball up at a higher rate than he was last year.

Bohm's 2023 barrel rate was at 5.7, but has jumped to 8.7 percent this season. It's not an elite rate, but it's still pretty significant and has increased his hard hit percentage by about seven ticks.

Overall, Bohm has improved in some way in basically every aspect at the plate. He currently sits fifth on the Phillies in bWAR with 1.7 and has his eye on his first All Star appearance.

In MLB's first ballot update, Bohm has a commanding lead over the rest of the NL third baseman. As it sits, Bohm has received a bit more than one million votes. THe second biggest vote getter is Manny Machado, who has 267 thousand.

From the looks of it, Alec Bohm will be starting the All Star game, and it's well desereved. A great player has taken a huge step forward and is becoming the franchise cornerstone he was billed as when the Phillies took him with the third pick all those years ago.