Philadelphia Philliees How top prospect Alec Bohm will impact team
Philadelphia Phillies top prospect Alec Bohm made his debut Thursday.
The Philadelphia Phillies called up its highly touted prospect, Alec Bohm, Thursday to play against the Baltimore Orioles. He is first on the Phillies’ prospect list and is the 31st ranked prospect across all teams.
During this shortened season, we have already seen various top prospects getting called up for their first taste of the “bigs.” Examples include the White Sox’s Nick Madrigal, Kris Bubic from the Royals, and the Blue Jay’s Nate Pearson to name a few.
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So who is Alec Bohm?
He was born in Omaha, NE, and attended Wichita State University. The 24-year-old was drafted in the 2018 MLB Draft at the third pick in the first round.
Bohm caught the eyes of scouts during his outstanding Cape Cod League season and his Junior year at Wichita. After being drafted by the Phillies, he dominated in the minor leagues.
The 6’5″ third baseman in 614 minor league at-bats has hit .293, slugged .474, hit 21 home runs and 97 RBIs. He additionally stole 9 bases and struck out only 96 times with 69 walks.
Just from looking at his 2-year minor league career, you can tell what type of player Bohm is.
In the MLB Prospect list, he is given a scouting grade of:
- Hit: 60/80
- Power: 55/80
- Run: 35/80
- Arm: 50/80
- Field: 45/80
- Overall: 55/80
Bohm is a quality hitter and the Phillies think he is ready to make the leap from Double-A to the MLB, so they must trust his hitting ability. From the scout report, his defense is lacking.
He is not a great runner which will affect his lateral quickness and ability to range out to make tough plays at the hot corner.
According to Manny Randhawa, “Bohm doesn’t offer much when he’s outside of the batters’ box, however. Though he has worked diligently to improve at third base.” Randhawa thinks Bohm can be compared to Nicholas Castellanos of the Reds.
I watched his swing online and is very reminiscent of a Christian Yelich load. Yelich is listed at 6’3″ so he has sort of a similar body build as Bohm, who is an inch taller and weighs a little more.
Bohm does have a decent size leg kick where he loads on his backside well sort of like Yelich does. Although Yelich does have a slightly smaller leg kick and lowers his body as he strides, while Bohm stays a little more upright.
I think you could also compare Bohm’s swing to his teammate, Rhys Hoskins, who also has a high leg kick and gains some ground in his stride. But, Hoskins is much more of a power hitter than Bohm is at the moment.
Some also compared Bohm to Kris Bryant, which I partially see. But the main area where I see similarities in how Bohm gets his arms extended very well like Bryant does when they make great contact. And after contact, both Bohm and Bryant are very straight up, as opposed to some players who attempt to lift the ball and are slightly leaning back after contact.
Now looking back at Bohm’s stats from the minor leagues, he did not have very many home runs. But, he is a savvy hitter who knows the strike zone and will not strike out often.
I think he can grow into his body a little more and could see some more home runs in the next few years. He is only 24 and has proven himself to be a great hitter, and the power might be extra credit.
As far as his defense, the numbers do not look amazing during his time in the minors. When playing third, which he did for the majority of the games, he had a .920 fielding percentage. While at first base, where he totaled 23 starts, he had a .989 fielding percentage.
His fielding will most definitely need to improve for him to be an everyday starter in the big leagues at third, but luckily for the Phillies, there is a league-wide designated hitter that Joe Girardi could take advantage of with Bohm.