The Phillies’ Alec Bohm is ‘as confident as he’s ever been’ and poised for a big season

ARLINGTON, Texas — There was a time, not so long ago, when the Phillies’ Alec Bohm wouldn’t have been able to do what he did on Thursday. In 2021, the fastball eluded him, and pitchers knew it. He was thrown 1,059 fastballs that year and batted .190 against them. But those days are over.

Bohm stepped up to the plate on Thursday, took two pitches against Jacob deGrom, and sent the third, a 99 mph elevated fastball, over the right-center field fence at Globe Life Field. He wasn’t done. Bohm went 2-for-2 against deGrom, a two-time Cy Young Award winner, and 3-for-4 on the day. He was a triple short of the cycle in an otherwise disappointing 11-7 loss to the Texas Rangers.

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Anyone who watched the 26-year-old third baseman this spring should not be surprised. Bohm hit four home runs and slugged .518. He showed up to camp stronger than ever. But what we’re seeing is not the product of some mechanical adjustment, or a different approach. It’s the culmination of the work he’s put in since last year.

When the Phillies were in St. Louis last July, Bohm watched a lot of Paul Goldschmidt’s at-bats. He asked his hitting coach, Kevin Long, what made the Cardinals first baseman and 2022 NL MVP so successful. Long explained that it was because Goldschmidt was always on time. The next day, they headed to the batting cages and made a few tweaks. Bohm began putting his foot down earlier, right as the pitcher was releasing the ball, to help get his swing off. The results were instantaneous.

He batted .480 with a .680 slugging percentage on four-seam fastballs that month. He finished the year batting .295 on them, with a .410 slugging percentage.

“In this game you work very hard, every day, to fix everything you need to get better at your craft,” Long said of Bohm. “He’s done everything I’ve asked him to do and has basically been able to correct being on time for the fastball. He did it last year, worked on it all offseason, and came in and it really has been pretty simple. We were pretty much just picking up where we left off.

“I don’t want to make a big noise of it and I know he doesn’t either, I just know that together we’ve worked really hard to get him in a good position. His head is in a good space. He’s as confident as he’s ever been and he expects some of the stuff that happened tonight — what happened in spring training, what happened in the playoffs — I think he more or less expects that. He knows he’s a really good player.”

That confidence was not always there. Last spring, Bohm was competing for a job. He wore his emotions on his sleeve, and at times, those emotions were picked up on the local TV broadcast. But over the past few months, he’s settled into his own. He is not mercurial.

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Long can point to an example. Bohm’s first strikeout of the spring came against Pirates lefty Rob Zastryzny. He battled through six pitches but struck out swinging at a cutter out of the zone. As he walked back to the dugout, he suddenly stopped and looked at Long.

“How was my body language on that strikeout?” he said with a laugh.

Long was encouraged. When they first started working together after Long was hired in October of 2021, Bohm was hard on himself. This seemed like a sign of growth.

“We’ve gotten him to the point where we can almost get him to laugh about it at times,” Long said. “After that strikeout, he wasn’t head down, dragging all the way back to the dugout, maybe tossing the helmet. He’s not past those days, but they’re certainly far and few between. He’s pretty steady.

“We always tell him — people can see when your head goes down and you’re a different player, and they feed off of that. Don’t let them know, ever. He’s done a nice job of changing that script.”

Bohm has changed the script in more ways than one. He’s a stronger defender. He’s coming into his own as a hitter. He’s more mature. But above all, he knows he belongs.

“I think he’s a terrific player,” Long said. “I always have. It’s good to see that he’s being rewarded for pretty much changing who he was. He couldn’t hit a fastball. He struggled hitting fastballs. He’s turned into not only a good fastball hitter, but he still hits breaking balls pretty well. He’s a well-rounded player. We’re lucky to have him.”

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