Perhaps no current Philadelphia Phillies player is more reviled than Alec Bohm. The erstwhile third baseman is in the midst of his seventh season in red pinstripes, a season that until just a few weeks ago was a complete failure. Bohm showed some resilience in dragging his season-long OPS back up to .700 on Friday night, but that shouldn’t trick the Phils into running it back with him in 2027.
Since debuting back in 2020, Bohm has appeared in 853 contests for the Phillies, slashing .274/.325/.412 with just 85 homers and 474 RBI. There have been some achievements in that time, including a second-place finish in Rookie of the Year Award voting and a 2024 All-Star berth, but on the whole, the 30-year-old has been an utterly forgettable player.
Bohm having been a non-factor in the aggregate over seven years in red pinstripes is especially disappointing considering the Phillies selected him with the third-overall pick back in 2018. Just for a bit of retrospective salt in the wound, they could have used that selection on future stars Logan Gilbert, Brice Turang, or Nico Hoerner, all of whom went later in the first round.
The disappointment surrounding Bohm’s tenure in Philadelphia has had most fans eagerly awaiting his exodus at the end of this season, seeing as that’s when he’ll reach free agency for the first time. The assumption throughout the sport has long been that the two sides will go their separate ways this coming winter. In fact, the club was looking to move on from Bohm this past offseason before Bo Bichette rugpulled them at the eleventh hour.
And yet, any seasoned Phillies fan knows that running it back is always a possibility. For example, former All-Star Taijuan Walker was brought in ahead of the 2023 season to shore up the back end of the rotation, but failed to live up to his billing. The right-hander had a middling first season in Philly, but completely bottomed out with a 7.10 ERA in 2024. Despite resounding calls for Walker’s release, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski opted to keep him in the fold.
2025 was a bit of a bounceback for Walker, but he clearly was not the same hurler he used to be. Dombrowski inexplicably gifted the 33-year-old an Opening Day rotation spot, and he immediately set five winnable games on fire with a ghastly 9.13 ERA. Walker was mercifully cut loose at the end of April, over a year too late.
The moral of the Walker story is that Dombrowski’s Phillies will go to great lengths to maintain continuity. There are many more examples of this phenomenon: Orion Kerking and José Alvarado continuing to get high-leverage opportunities, Nick Castellanos remaining an everyday player far beyond the point his skills left him, and on and on.
Alec Bohm’s impending free agency is the perfect opportunity to amicably cut ties with a massive disappointment. No messy trade request or release. Just a simple pat on the back on his way out the door. Unfortunately, Dombrowski can’t be trusted to make that decision.
Who should replace Alec Bohm on the 2027 Phillies?
Someone will need to play third base for the 2027 Phillies, but who will that be? The free agent market offers slim pickings beyond public enemy number one Bo Bichette (if he opts out of his massive contract). The Phils may already employ the answer to their problem if they decide to retain trade deadline acquisition Luis Arraez. In such a scenario they could keep Bryson Stott at the hot corner and tell Bohm to pound sand.
However, if Arraez goes elsewhere they may not have many good options. Top-100 prospect Aidan Miller is a complete wildcard due to a back injury, and there aren’t any other internal promotion candidates of note. If there’s no Arraez to be had, Bohm and his barely-.700 OPS might start to look tempting to the ever-loyal Dombrowski.
Phillies fans should hope and pray that Arraez, Miller, or anyone else with a pulse can clear up the cloudy infield picture, because the fog of war could cause Dave Dombrowski to run it back one more time with the most unpopular player of this era.
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