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Third baseman Alec Bohm should take part of the credit for the Phillies’ outstanding 16–10 start in 2024. At the plate, he is off to a blistering hot start.
Over the course of 26 games this season, the lanky corner infielder has made 104 trips to the plate with a hitting line of.333/.423/.556. As a result, he has performed 70% better this season than the league average hitter, with a wRC+ of 170. As of this early in the season, he is ranked as the 12th best qualified hitter in the majors.
This kind of heat is perhaps too much for him to handle for very long. He is hitting.386 on balls in play this season, which is significantly higher than his lifetime rate of.324 and the league average of.290. Given that his exit velocity stats are similar to those from previous seasons, the BABIP is likely to slightly regress going ahead. However, considering that they adhere to a growth pattern that goes back a few years, he has also achieved some advancements in the area of plate discipline that may be more durable.
Bohm advanced through the minor league ranks in 2019 as a prospect, going from Low-A to High-A to Double-A. He walked in 10.6% of his plate appearances while striking out in just 13.5% of them. Prospective assessors had praised his eye at the plate, and those figures supported that. He had a 161 wRC+ that year hitting.305/.378/.518 at the minor league levels.