Is Alec Bohm Breaking Out? Early Returns Look Promising
Alec Bohm’s career with the Philadelphia Phillies has had plenty of ups and downs, with a hot start to the season, has Alec figured it out? Drafted in the first round of the 2018 draft, the 6ft5in 3rd baseman out of Wichita State came in with massive pedigree and ran through the Phillies farm system, making his MLB Debut in the covid shortened 2020 season. Alec came into this spring training, after a short offseason due to the Phillies Post Season run this year, with 15 more pounds of muscle and looking more fit than he ever has. He made it a priority to eat clean, sticking with his usual workout routine. Working on his hitting with Kevin Long, Alec feels he is in a great spot to help lead this team who will desperately need it with all the injuries piling on. But will the power that all the scouts projected for him ever develop?
Alec soared through the Philadelphia farm system and made his debut with the team in August of 2020. Alec came out on absolute fire, playing with the big-league club for 44 games and batting .338 with a .400 OBP. Alec led all rookies in batting average, OBP, Slugging Percentage and OPS. This was strong enough to earn him 2nd place in the NL Rookie of the Year voting, finishing behind Devin Williams, the incredible reliver in Milwaukee. Philadelphia was convinced they had found their new long-term 3rd basemen, that could one day rival Hall of Famers Scott Rolen and Mike Schmidt.
However, 2021 was a true test of character for Alec as he struggled immensely. Alec saw his numbers drop drastically. In 115 games with the Phillies, Alec, who had been known as a huge contact hitter with great power upside, saw his numbers plummet, batting .247 with a .305 OBP, eventually leading to a demotion back to the minor leagues to get his head right. The season ended, and Bohm hoped for a strong bounce back in 2022. Unfortunately, that didn’t start the way he had hoped, leading to a 3 error game and getting caught on camera saying “I F****** hate this place.” Bohm handled it like a true professional, apologized to the fans and the team and got his head back to a good place. Finishing the regular season batting .280 and starting to show some power with 13 homeruns Alec looked to be rounding into form. Not only that, Alec was red hot in the World Series, leading the team in hits and extra base hits. The best part though, Alec raised his launch angle from an abysmal 4.8 in his first season, 5.6 in his second season, to a much more respectable 10.4. This showed why the power started to finally show last year and leads us to today.
Alec had a great spring and has carried it over to a beautiful start to the season. Although his launch angle of 9.1 is still below the league average, Bohm has excelled in almost every other hitting category, ranking in the top percentages in baseball in Barrel Rate, Average Exit Velo, XSlugging % and Hard-Hit Rate. All this has shown a huge step in Alec’s game, where he has started the season batting .313, with a .389 OBP, .951 OPS and has slugged 2 homers so far. As I’m finishing this article, Alec just crushed his 3rd homerun, hitting an absolute bomb 440 feet. “Alec learning to barrel the other way as well as adding power is going to make him an absolute stud” said John Kruk during the Phillies game today. The sky is the limit for what Alec can do, and it seems working with Kevin Long has been a huge addition to his swing. Let’s keep hitting Alec!
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Categorized:Phillies