Alec Bohm‘s relationship with Philadelphia fans has had its peaks and valleys. Getting caught on camera saying that he couldn’t wait to get out of Philadelphia? A valley. Owning up to it after the game, apologizing, and talking about how frustrated he has been? A peak. Spending the last two winters hearing Dave Dombrowski talk about how he wanted to trade Bohm? A valley. Potentially putting together the best season of his career just prior to going into free agency? That would be a huge peak!
Bryson Stott has struggled offensively and been platooned to avoid having him play against left-handers, and has also been in the trade rumor mill during his time with the Phillies. One scenario where the Phillies would have signed Bo Bichette to play second and put top prospect Aidan Miller at third, allowing the team to ditch both Bohm and Stott was also floated for a while.
As winter starts to fade, Bohm and Stott are both drawing rave reviews for their play early in the Grapefruit League. On Thursday, both players had two hits in a win over Boston with Bohm scoring on a sacrifice fly by Stott. Bohm’s day upped his average to .417 (5-12) and Stott now batting .700 (7-10).
Stott’s development grew by leaps and bounds late last season. In a session with Kevin Long, the Phillies hitting coach took a blunt approach and told Stott “unless you want to be a .230 hitter for the rest of your career, you need to drop your hands.” The message got through to Stott, who hates being in a platoon and wants to be an every day player. That discussion happened late last July when Stott was hitting .232 on the season and having a horrible month at the plate where he hit just .194 (12-62).
Stott made the adjustment and turned things around. Over August and September Stott hit .310 (48-155) to raise his season average to .257. He also hit six of his 13 home runs over the final two months of the season and drove in 48 of his 66 runs in that same span. The approach carried over to this spring and the change became obvious in back-to-back games recently. Against Washington, Stott homered to left against a left-handed hitter and the following day doubled against another left-hander.
As for Bohm, he has come into camp looking to prove a lot of things to the fans, the front office, the coaches, and himself. There haven’t been any changes to Bohm’s stance or swing as there has been with Stott, but for him, the changes are more mental. Bohm can’t control what the Phillies do with him, at least not now. After the season though, Bohm will be able to have a stronger voice in what happens with the rest of his career and he knows that big numbers this season will only increase his control and the size of his contract.
Aidan Miller is still the heir apparent at third base, so the chances that Bohm would be back with the Phillies next season are not good. A tiny asterisk beside that is the recurring back issue that Miller apparently suffers from. If that were to get worse, the picture could change, but it is still possible that the Phillies would move on from Bohm during the offseason.
The potential emergence of Bohm and Stott as offensive players would go a long way toward helping the Phillies offense this season.
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