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Alec Bohm, the third baseman, deserves some of the credit for the Phillies’ incredible 16–10 start in 2024. He is off to a scorching hot start at the plate.
The lanky corner infielder has made 104 trips to the plate with a hitting line of.333/.423/.556 through 26 games this season. With a wRC+ of 170, he has thus far this season outperformed the league average hitter by 70%. He is now the 12th best qualifying hitter in the majors as of this early in the season.
He might not be able to tolerate this level of heat for very long. This season, he is hitting.386 on balls in play, much above both the league average of.290 and his lifetime rate of.324. His exit velocity figures are comparable to those from prior seasons, so looking forward, the BABIP is probably going to regress a little bit. But he has also made some progress towards plate discipline, which may be more enduring, given that they follow a growth pattern that dates back a few years.
As a prospect in 2019, Bohm moved up through the minor league divisions, from Low-A to High-A to Double-A. In just 13.5% of his plate appearances did he strike out, walking in 10.6% of them. His eye at the plate had been commended by prospective evaluators, and the numbers confirmed it. That year, he hit.305/.378/.518 in the minor leagues with a 161 wRC+.
