Struggling Phillies Star Alec Bohm Is Having His Maturity Tested Early This Season

It's no secret that the Philadelphia Phillies tried to trade Alec Bohm this past offseason.

How serious they were about actually moving him isn't quite known, especially based on the laughable return packages they were reportedly asking for from teams who were actually interested in acquiring the 2024 All-Star.

But, whenever players are being shopped by their teams and are held onto, that creates an interesting dynamic coming into the next year.

That was the case for Bohm.

Manager Rob Thomson and the coaching staff tried to smooth things over during the spring ahead of the season, saying that the third baseman who has often had problems with his mood, came into camp more mature.

Well, that newfound maturity is already being tested in the early going of the campaign.

Bohm has been dreadful in the early going, slashing .158/.172/.175 that has forced Thomson to move the struggling slugger down towards the back of the lineup.

Bohm's only extra-base hit so far came on Opening Day when he laced a double into the gap in center and left field. Since that point, he's struck out 11 times and has only gotten a hit in six out of his last 12 games.

"I barreled up everything I swung at last night too. It's really hard. Obviously it's nothing to do with the swing and everywhere I turn, it's look at your expected numbers, look at this, keep your head up, it's gonna be OK. But I just keep hitting balls hard and they keep going right at people. There's really nothing I can do about it," he said, per Corey Seidman of NBC Sports Philadelphia.

Sometimes the ball just doesn't bounce in favor of the hitter, and that seems to be happening here.

While his raw numbers look poor, the advanced stats paint a different picture.

Entering play on Sunday, Bohm's expected batting average is .262 compared to his real batting average of .158. His expected slugging percentage is .411 compared to the .175 figure he currently has.

He's also hitting the ball the hardest he ever has during his career (54.5% hard hit rate), while barreling the ball at the second-highest clip, too (9.1%).

"I guess the game's trying to teach me a lesson, maybe," Bohm added.

Maybe that lesson is maturity.

The Phillies know the type of mood swings the 28-year-old can have when things aren't going his way, but so far he seems to be taking this slow start about as well as anyone could.

How long that is the case remains to be seen.

Hopefully for everyone's sake, the lesson that this game is trying to teach Bohm ends soon and his numbers can meet the expected ones that he's produced thus far.