CLEARWATER, Fla. -- Alec Bohm would love to be that cleanup guy again.
His timing would be perfect. Bohm, 29, is entering perhaps his final year with the Phillies, set to become a free agent following this season. It would boost his stock if he returned to the form that made him the National League’s starting third baseman in the 2024 All-Star Game.
“In the grand scheme of things, it’s still pretty far away,” Bohm said this weekend at BayCare Ballpark. “It’s not like I’m going to be like, ‘I’ve got to get three hits today because I’m going to be a free agent.’ That’s a slippery slope.”
Bohm spent most of 2024 hitting cleanup, knocking in 70 of his 97 RBIs from that spot. He had 97 RBIs in both ’23 and ’24.
The Phillies need production like that from their cleanup hitter again. Their cleanup hitters posted a combined .720 OPS last season, which ranked 20th in MLB.
“When you think of a [No.] 4 hitter, everybody wants home runs,” Bohm said. “At this point, it’s not necessarily the whole part of my game. I’m not a prototypical four hitter. I put the ball in play. I’m contact over power. I will strike out less, hit more, walk less. But what I can do is be somebody behind those guys that they still don’t necessarily want to pitch to in a situation with guys on base because they know I can move the ball around the yard.
“Yeah, I would love to get back to driving in 100 runs.”
If Opening Day was today, the smart money would be on Bohm hitting behind Trea Turner, Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber -- Phillies manager Rob Thomson said those three will be his first three hitters, not necessarily in that order -- although Thomson mentioned Adolis García and J.T. Realmuto as other possibilities.
“I think whoever’s in that four spot is going to have a big job to do,” Harper said.
The Phillies tried (and failed) to sign Bo Bichette last month, which returned Bohm to the rumor mill. It was the second consecutive offseason he had been featured in trade speculation.
“Every offseason it’s like, ‘Where are you going? Where are you getting traded?’” Bohm said. “I’m like, ‘I don’t think anywhere, but we’ll see.’ I’ve been getting traded for the last five years, but I’m still in Clearwater.”
He smiled.
“That’s just part of the game,” he said. “I’m not the only one that happens to. Everybody, everywhere, every team, everyone, there’s always, 'Oh, if we shuffled this around, if we move this guy, if we move that guy' -- there’s always talk like that. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn’t.”
But Bohm will be the Phillies’ Opening Day third baseman for the fifth time in six years. Only Mike Schmidt (16 times), Willie “Puddin’ Head” Jones (10) and Scott Rolen (six) have started more Opening Days at third base in franchise history.
Bohm hit .287 with 11 homers, 59 RBIs and a .740 OPS last year. He lost his swing at times as he struggled with a cyst in his left shoulder, which needed to be drained. The pinching in his shoulder altered his hitting mechanics.
He spent the offseason in Houston, studying and trying to recapture the swing that made him an All-Star in 2024.
“I’m more focused on bat path,” Bohm said. “Where is my barrel at? In 2025, it was dragging a little bit more, which lines up with how my body was feeling. It was making me late, making me not be able to get to anything to the pull side when it needed to get there. There were times last year when it was good. But when it wasn’t good, that’s when I was dragging and couldn’t get to that front window when you talk about hitting.”
Bohm doesn’t know what the future holds. The Phillies don’t either, although everybody is preparing for it. Bohm’s locker is a few spots from Phillies top prospect Aidan Miller (MLB Pipeline's No. 23 prospect overall), who could be his replacement next year.
Bohm gets it. He was the top prospect, too. When the Phillies selected him with the third overall pick in the 2018 MLB Draft, Maikel Franco was the team’s primary third baseman. Bohm replaced him in 2020.
“It can be weird if you make it weird,” Bohm said. “The more I grow and find myself … I’m six years in at this point. You kind of are who you are. Do I think I have the capability to hit 30-35 homers? I do. But I don’t think it’s going to be beneficial to anybody if I go up there and sell out to hit a homer every at-bat.
"I think what I can do to help the team in the four spot is find a different way to make people scared -- for lack of a better word -- so they don't walk Bryce to go face me.”