Phillies give struggling Bohm 'a little day' out of lineup

PHILADELPHIA -- Phillies interim manager Don Mattingly said he is giving Alec Bohm “a little day.”

Others might call it a breather, a reset, a clearing of the mind or a benching.

Bohm started Thursday night’s series finale against the A’s at Citizens Bank Park on the bench. Wednesday night, Mattingly pinch-hit Bryson Stott for Bohm in the seventh inning. It was the first time in Bohm’s career that he had been pinch-hit for (excluding injuries or blowouts).

It was a symbol of just how poorly things have gone for Bohm.

Bohm, who opened the season as the team’s cleanup hitter, is batting .159 with one home run, 15 RBIs and a .433 OPS. It is the second-lowest OPS of any qualified player in baseball. It is the fourth-lowest OPS of any Phillies player through the team’s first 37 games since 1900. Bohm has sprinkled in good at-bats here and there, but he has shown few signs of coming out of his slump.

It is a growing concern for a team that has struggled against left-handed pitching.

“I’m sure he’s pressing because he wants to do well,” Mattingly said. “Just trying hard, right? For sure. He’s going to hit, and I believe that until the day I'm not on this earth that he's going to hit. And we're going to need him to be himself. He's going to get a lot of big hits for us. You guys are going to forget what happened in May when he's hitting down the stretch and driving in runs. He's part of our club. He's going to be a part of it. And he’s going to hit.”

Bohm will be a free agent after the season, so this is an important year for him. It could be weighing on him. He also is suing his parents, alleging that they defrauded him of millions.

Bohm said on Opening Day that he wouldn’t comment on his personal matters.

Perhaps it’s all affected his hitting. Or maybe he is just in the worst slump of his career at the worst time.

Mattingly was asked if would consider sitting Bohm for a few days to try to clear his mind.

“Yeah, if I thought it was going to help him, we would,” he said.

Could it?

“Anything’s a possibility, right?” Mattingly said. “But today we just wanted to get him a reset day.”

Mattingly said he encouraged Bohm not to hit or take ground balls before the game.

Bohm listened. He did not step onto the field before the game.

“He’s been working so hard,” Mattingly said. “He’s been hitting extra all the time. You can never tell a guy he can’t hit because we could still use him today. It’s not like he's going to be sitting over there [with the] game on the line in the right spot for him that he wouldn't be used. But, yeah, encourage him to take a reset day from the standpoint of like, grinding, grinding, grinding. Take a step back and then get back after it.”

The Phillies started Edmundo Sosa at third base on Thursday night, but he is probably not a long-term solution if Bohm’s struggles continue. He is best suited in a utility role.

Ideally, top Phillies prospect Aidan Miller would be playing well in Triple-A Lehigh Valley and pushing for a promotion, but he has an injured back.

There is no timetable for Miller’s return. His progress has been very slow, although everybody has said he is doing well. Recently, he had started to take ground balls and began rotational exercises as he prepared to swing a bat for the first time since mid-February.

But recently Miller stopped all baseball activities, and he is no closer to swinging a bat.

Some might consider that a setback, but others have framed it as the Phillies slowing down Miller’s recovery as they take a highly conservative approach to his recovery.

Miller is too important to the team’s future to mess up.

Lehigh Valley’s Otto Kemp can play third base, but he batted .100 with a .282 OPS in 22 plate appearances with the Phillies before they optioned him to Triple-A last month. He is hitting .267 with two homers, 15 RBIs and an .816 OPS since his return.

Carter Kieboom has played most of the IronPigs’ innings at third base. A former top prospect with the Nationals, he is batting .317 with two homers, 10 RBIs and an .824 OPS. He has hit .200 with a .597 OPS in 516 plate appearances in his MLB career with the Nationals and Angels.

If Mattingly is right, Bohm’s turnaround is coming. If not, however, the Phillies will have to look for a solution, which could mean pursuing a second or third baseman before the Aug. 3 Trade Deadline.

Stott could move to third if the Phillies acquired a second baseman.

Too much is on the line.