Phillies infielder Alec Bohm underwent an MRI on his left hamstring today, per Matt Gelb of The Athletic. The issue has caused him to miss a couple of games recently but now could potentially lead to a stint on the injured list, depending on the results of that imaging.
Bohm, 26, has had a fairly inconsistent career thus far. A top 100 prospect in his time as a minor leaguer, he burst onto the scene in 2020, hitting .338/.400/.481 for a wRC+ of 138 over his 44-game debut. He finished second in National League Rookie of the Year voting to Devin Williams. But then he endured a deep sophomore slump the year after, getting optioned to the minors for over a month at one point and finishing with a .247/.305/.342 batting line and wRC+ of just 75. Since his third base defense was regarded as quite poor, that offensive performance was all the more troublesome.
He bounced back somewhat last year, getting his production up to .280/.315/.398. The resultant 98 wRC+ indicates he was still a bit below league average but it was nonetheless an improvement. He’s stayed sort of in that range this year, currently hitting .265/.321/.403 for a wRC+ of 96.
Despite those tepid results, an absence from Bohm wouldn’t be ideal for the Phillies. They’ve been dealing with issues at first base for most of the year due to the torn ACL of Rhys Hoskins and the thumb surgery of Darick Hall. The former has missed the entire season thus far and may end up missing the rest of it as well, whereas the latter played just six games before going under the knife. He began a rehab assignment yesterday.
With those two absences, the club has been running a combined platoon at the corners of late. On days when they face a right-handed starter, Bohm takes third with Kody Clemens on first. Against a southpaw, Bohm moves over to first with either Edmundo Sosa or Josh Harrison covering the hot corner. Clemens is having a decent season overall but has hit just .143/.143/.143 against lefties, though in a tiny sample of seven plate appearances. Sosa is hitting a subpar .261/.283/.400 for the year while Harrison is struggling badly, currently sitting on a line of .186/.234/.254. Dalton Guthrie has some third base experience but is hitting just .118/.211/.176 so far this year.
Subtracting Bohm from the equation could lead to extra playing time for that group while affording the club fewer opportunities to optimize the lineup based on the handedness of the opposing pitcher. Bryce Harper has been getting some work at first base as he continues to distance himself from his Tommy John surgery but still hasn’t made an appearances there this season. It’s unclear if the club would entertain the idea of putting him into game action there in the near future. Hall should be nearing a return since he’s started rehabbing but it would be fair to expect a bit of rust after nearly a two-month absence. Even if Harper or Hall is able to cover first, it still leaves the club likely covering third with some sort of uninspiring Bohm-less platoon composed of the above options. Taking all that into consideration, the Phils would undoubtedly prefer that the MRI doesn’t find anything too serious in Bohm’s hamstring.
Rough year for the Phillies. The wrong kind of hits keep on coming.
Yea, this just doesn’t seem to be our year. If only we were good at developing more position players at the farm level.
But can said position players pitch?
Seeing Hoskins and Hall go down with a couple of weeks was the worst kind of omen.
You’re right. Injuries happen. Phillies had some depth, but that’s all gone now. Really the biggest surprise is how terrible Turner has looked. No one saw that coming.
At least Hall should be back relatively soon. It’s not looking too good for the Phillies, but perhaps he’ll bring some hope and excitement for the future.
I don’t think Hall is any better than Clemens, but I guess we can hope.
Clemens can at least move around a bit. I think we are to the point where it may be worth putting Harrison out to pasture and rolling with those two, mixing Clemens in around the rest of the INF.
Kind of feels like the Phils sold their souls to make that incredible playoff run last year. Seemingly paying the price for that now.
It does feel that way, but the one positive is that the stars haven’t played well. You have to figure that either Turner, Schwarber or Realmuto will hit eventually. They can’t all be this bad. There’s still hope they’ll shake out of this slow start, but they’re pretty tough to watch right now.
Kyle “Mr June” Schwarber….if he dosent turn it around this month……
The pitch clock strikes again.
Evidence? Any at all?
You really must learn to recognize sarcasm.
ham77,
I’d say that’s a pun, not sarcasm, especially since we’re now ethically, morally, and maybe even legally required to end all sarcastic remarks with /s.
Fudge! Now we need to get into a universal morality debate because SOMEBODY didn’t end their last comment with a “/s”.
He emailed all of us his peer-reviewed submission to Baseball Comments Quarterly. Did you not get the attachment?
Well, swinging wood really outdid himself in his analysis this time. I can honestly say he has the evidence, and lots of it. Probably a good 700 pages supporting his theory that the pitch clock struck this time. He also covers examples to support his claim of it striking previously with his use of the word “again”.
Top marks
All around league the bumps and bruises have ramped up last 2 weeks
Put a fork in those Hatfield Dollar Dogs. The Phillies are done
Just like last year.
Fans don’t seem to understand that the format has changed. This is a “playoff” sport now. You can underperform all season but if you stay in position and simply “make” the playoffs you can make your season. Get guys healthy, strengthen the team at the deadline and who knows?
I’ll take a defensive first Sosa over Bohm at 3rd 7 days a week.
That’s crazy because Sosa has been horrific at third. He was solid as a middle infielder, but his defense at third is worse than Bohm’s.
Sosa was played by Paul Shenar.
I still can’t believe the Phillies haven’t tried Ortiz out at 1B. Would make so much sense with the LHV OF clutter and the big club’s needs on the corners.