With World Series Hopes, Phillies Need More From Talented Slumping Infielder

The Philadelphia Phillies are winning games and hitting the ball well, but one key player needs to step up if the team is going to deliver on its World Series aspirations.

Mar 31, 2025; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Phillies third base Alec Bohm (28) uses a torpedo bat during the sixth inning against the Colorado Rockies at Citizens Bank Park. / Eric Hartline-Imagn Images

March and April have been very kind to the Philadelphia Phillies, who sit atop the competitive National League East division with a 7-2 record.

With a roster loaded with talent both in the lineup and on the pitching staff, it's no surprise that the Phillies are off to a hot start.

They currently sit in third place in MLB in team OPS with a mark of .792, buoyed by strong starts from Edmundo Sosa (1.381), Kyle Schwarber (1.037) and Nick Castellanos (.827).

Excellent starts by Zack Wheeler, Jesus Luzardo and Cristopher Sanchez along with brilliant relief efforts from Matt Strahm and Jose Alvarado have resulted in Philadelphia ranking seventh in team ERA.

But not everyone on the team has found such success in the early going, including the team's everyday third baseman, Alec Bohm.

Bohm entered the season on a weird note, as he was widely speculated as a player the Phillies could upgrade upon. The team was linked to free agent Alex Bregman at points, for example.

The 28-year-old Bohm has floundered at the plate so far, producing a slash line of .200/.222/.229. He's walking only 2.8% of the time, and he's been worth -0.2 fWAR to this point.

Bohm is no stranger to slow starts. In April of 2022, he infamously appeared to say that he hated this place in reference to Citizens Bank Park while walking off the field after a tough inning.

In April of 2023, he posted an OPS of .693 before recovering to finish the campaign with a .753 mark.

For a player at a premium position on a team with World Series aspirations, especially one whose job security was called into question during the offseason, Philadelphia needs more from Bohm.

The good news is that better days are on the way for the Nebraska native.

According to Baseball Savant data, Bohm is in the 94th percentile in MLB in average exit velocity, 89th in expected batting average and 97th in whiff rate.

He's seeing the ball, hitting it frequently and hitting it hard; he's just been tremendously unlucky in terms of batted ball outcomes.

His batting average on balls in play is just .200, far below his career average of .276. He's yet to hit a home run this season, but if he keeps making contact in the way that he has, that will change in a hurry, and the rest of his numbers will shoot up closer to, and maybe even beyond, his career averages.

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