Alec Bohm is ‘synced up’ at the plate lately. Here’s how he trained himself to be selectively aggressive.

SAN DIEGO — Alec Bohm can reach almost any pitch, which, for him, is a blessing and a curse. In the past, there were pitches he swung at that he now realizes he shouldn’t have, particularly pitches on the edge of the zone or just outside of it.

Sometimes the Phillies third baseman would get a hit, but more often than not, those pitches would lead to ground balls or pop flies. It wasn’t the kind of contact he wanted to be making.

So, Bohm came into this season with the goal of being selectively aggressive. He and his hitting coaches began to work on a routine in spring training to help him with that, and worked on fine-tuning his swing — mainly, shortening it up a bit.

He has focused on separation before every game — making sure his hands and his front foot are down before pitch is released — which has helped him get in a better position to hit. Bohm swung at borderline pitches at a rate of 51.5% last season. In 2024, he’s dropped that number to 41.9%.

“My whole life, I have been really good at putting the bat on the ball,” Bohm said. “And there’s time where it gets me in trouble, where I’ll swing at a pitch that’s on the corner and hard to hit, but I’ll touch it. And I end up fouling it off or putting it in play and get out.

“So it’s just trying to shrink the plate a little bit. I’ve done a lot prep work that has been really good. I’ve had a good plan. And over these last couple of weeks in the box, everything has been synced up. Hands, eyes, mind, all kind of working together.”

The results have been intriguing. Bohm, who has been batting fourth lately, is batting .347/.431/.568 on the season with three home runs. He’s dropped his chase rate from 30% in 2023 to 22% in 2024. He’s swinging at mistake pitches more than he has in his entire career, at a rate of 89.3%, and is making more quality contact as a result.

His strikeout rate has slightly increased, to 16.3%, but his walk rate has nearly doubled, from 6.9% in 2023 to 13.5% in 2024.

Much has been made of Bohm’s power over the past few weeks, but he believes that it is the selective aggression that has helped him unlock it.

“The more I can swing at pitches that are able to be hit hard, instead of trying to make something happen on a tough pitch, that’s obviously going to leave you with a better chance of success,” Bohm said.

There are other factors at play. Bohm is now in his fifth big league season and has a better sense of how pitchers across the league want to pitch to him. He’s also found a pregame routine that has helped him prepare for those pitchers.

Before games, assistant hitting coach Dustin Lind will set up pitching machines to simulate different arm angles of the pitchers the Phillies likely will face that day. Bohm isn’t the only player doing this pregame work, but it has made a real impact on his ability to see the ball.

“It’s about working more on finding where the ball is coming from, how it’s moving, and focusing more on that, rather than just saying, ‘Oh he throws a lot of sinkers,’ and this and that,” Bohm said. “Seeing what I’m going to see in the game before the game.

“Little things like that are really important. And that’s kind of where you can waste an at-bat in a game, off of guys [with tricky deliveries], because it’s not something you see very often and you’re obviously not ready for it.

“If you have to figure it out in the box — where the ball is coming from — there’s a good chance he gets you in that at-bat. I’m a little bit better prepared. A little bit more diligent with the prep work.”

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Bohm knows that he won’t always chase at the low rate he’s chasing at now, but he feels like he has the right foundation to self-correct if need be. If he continues on this track, Phillies hitting coach Kevin Long believes he could have a big year.

“He’s made a conscious effort,” Long said. “It was something we diagnosed during the offseason. We knew he could hit borderline pitches, and we knew he could get hits on them, but we also knew that if he could hone it in a little bit more, his average would probably end up going up, and so would his power numbers.

“What we didn’t expect was the walk rate to be where it’s at. It’s really at a high mark right now, and if he continues to do that, I believe he’s one of the top 10 hitters in baseball. He really becomes tough to pitch to. He doesn’t swing and miss a lot. He just puts the barrel on the ball. He’s got power in that swing, and we’re seeing it.”