CLEARWATER, Fla. — Six years into his major-league career, Alec Bohm knows exactly who he is as a player.
Also, who he’s not.
“In the grand scheme of things,” Bohm said here Tuesday, “you think about it, I’m prototypically not your average cleanup hitter. Body type-wise, yeah. But the way my game is, I guess, is not that of a typical [No.] 4 hitter.”
Bohm has thought about it. A lot. Because he does look the part — 6-foot-5, with shoulders that block the sun and never-ending arms and legs. But he hasn’t hit more than 20 homers or slugged .450 in a full season.
And yet, guess the Phillies‘ most frequent cleanup hitter over the last two seasons — and the leading candidate to reprise the role on opening day of Bohm’s last year before free agency.
Rob Thomson hasn’t settled on the order but wants Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber, and Bryce Harper to bat in the first inning. And whether Schwarber and Harper bat second and third, or vice versa, the cleanup hitter will be tasked with protecting one of the Phillies’ feared lefty sluggers.
Thomson has mentioned new right fielder Adolis García and J.T. Realmuto as options. But he noted that Bohm “would have taken down most of the at-bats” in the cleanup spot if not for two stints on the injured list. He was the cleanup hitter 102 times — and an All-Star — in 2024.
Get ready, then, for one more round of the familiar gripe about the Phillies’ atypical cleanup hitter, notably that someone as big and strong as Bohm doesn’t hit more balls over the fence.
“Anybody that says that has no [bleeping] clue how hard this game is and how good the pitching is at this point,” Bohm said. “Would you rather me swing at stuff that’s bouncing in front of the plate and strike out 180 times and get you 25 to 30 home runs so you feel better about it? Or do you want me to hit .280 and drive in 80 to 90 to 100 runs and hit 40 doubles and do it that way?
“To me, that’s more productive than me walking up there and striking out 190 times. That’s not my game.”
Bohm concedes that his game was “down last year.” He opened the season in a 9-for-60 tailspin with one extra-base hit through 14 games. He missed 27 games after the All-Star break with a cracked left rib and 11 in September with a cyst in his left shoulder that needed to be drained.
And after back-to-back 97-RBI seasons in which he was 11% more productive than league average based on OPS-plus, he backslid to 18 doubles, 11 homers, and a .741 OPS, 2% more productive than league average.
The Phillies shuttled Nick Castellanos, Realmuto, and Bohm through the cleanup spot, behind Harper. Phillies cleanup hitters combined for a .720 OPS, 20th in the majors. And Harper saw the lowest rate of pitches in the strike zone (43%) of anyone who qualified for the batting title.
Coincidence? Somewhat. Harper saw 42.6% of pitches in the zone through his first six Phillies seasons (2019-24). He has long contended that teams take extreme care in how they pitch to him no matter who bats behind him.
“There’s a lot of situations throughout the game, especially later in the game, where they’re obviously not going to let the franchise player beat them,” Bohm said. “You’ve got a righty on the mound, who in their right mind would let Bryce beat them?”
Maybe it would make the decision to pitch around Harper more difficult if Schwarber batted behind him, so Thomson is mulling that arrangement.
“But if Schwarbs is sitting there [in the No. 3 spot], the same thing’s going to kind of happen, right?” Harper said. “So, whoever’s in that four spot is going to have a big job to do.”
Bohm believes he’s up for it, even if his homer total doesn’t rise far above his 14.8 average over the last four years.
“For me, it’s not necessarily putting up a certain number of home runs,” Bohm said. “It’s just, am I executing with runners in scoring position? Am I driving in runs? Am I putting tough at-bats up there?
“The protection [of Harper or Schwarber] aspect of it, the way I want to go about it just being a good situational baseball player. The home runs, the damage, the doubles, all that stuff is going to come. But it’s not going to come as frequently if I’m up there trying to force it.”
Bohm’s best work over the years has come with runners in scoring position, largely because he makes more consistent contact than most hitters in the Phillies’ lineup. Even last year, his strikeout rate (16.3%) was well below major-league average (22.2%).
It’s one of the attributes cited by Thomson as a reason to like Bohm in the cleanup spot.
“If there’s runners out there, he’s going to put the ball in play,” Thomson said. “Typically, he hits a lot of doubles. And I love doubles. I love home runs, but I love doubles as well because that clears the bases.”
And Bohm has millions of reasons to capitalize on another opportunity to fill the cleanup role. He’s eligible for free agency after the season, which he said feels “really far off in the distance.”
Bohm’s successor may be only a few lockers away in the spring-training clubhouse. Top prospect Aidan Miller will play third base at times this year. And the Phillies discussed moving on from Bohm in each of the last two offseasons. They nearly signed free-agent infielder Bo Bichette last month, a move that would’ve corresponded with trading Bohm.
But for as long as he’s here, Bohm believes he can handle batting behind Harper or Schwarber.
“I can do things in a different way to create runs and not let the other team go, ‘We got through Kyle, now just walk Bryce, and we should be home free,’” Bohm said. “What I do is put the ball in play to where I’m not a hole behind a very important piece of our lineup.”
