Reports indicate that the Philadelphia Phillies are game to trade their third baseman for pitching.
The Detroit Tigers could really use a regular third baseman and a quality right-handed hitter. The Philadelphia Phillies are widely reported to be shopping 28-year-old third baseman, Alec Bohm. The asking price appears quite high, but it always does in the land of rumors and negotiation through the baseball media. A realistic proposal could certainly be made to bring Bohm to Detroit, and return pitching to Philadelphia. Other than prospects, pitching is the one area where the Tigers could give something up and realistically expect to find alternative solutions, so let’s consider some trade proposals.
Trading with Dave Dombrowski is always fraught with peril, but Scott Harris did manage to beat him in one trade already. Matt Vierling has been a fine addition to the Tigers, while Gregory Soto has continued to be an effective reliever who still battles bouts of wildness. The Phillies got a pretty good season and a half from Soto, then traded him to Baltimore for a pair of minor league pitching prospects back in July. Overall probably aren’t too upset with the trade of Vierling, but in terms of pure value, Harris is going to come out well ahead in the deal.
The problem for Dombrowski is that while Bohm had his best year in the major leagues in 2024, he dealt with a left wrist injury in early September and never got it going again. He stumbled to the finish, and was then benched by manager Rob Thomson after Game 1 of the NLDS against the New York Mets . That only lasted one game, but benching a starter with a .280/.332/.448 line who was playing the best defense of his career at the hot corner, brought up some old questions about how the Phillies actually view him and his fit with the Bryce Harper, J.T. Realmuto, and Kyle Schwarber-led team culture.
Still, teams that expect any of that to factor into Dombrowski’s evaluation of Bohm’s worth will be disappointed. For the first time in his career, Bohm was a plus at third base, and until the wrist injury he was comfortably having the best season of his career. He ended up being worth 3.5 fWAR after never topping 1.5 fWAR before, and his hot start in March and April was the best stretch of his career at the plate. His usual erratic performance followed in May, but he posted a 121 wRC+ in June and a 124 mark in July before cooling off again in August and cratering in September.
Bohm fits the Tigers’ needs pretty well
Bohm isn’t exactly a Scott Harris type hitter. He reminds more of Nick Castellanos without quite as much ability to ambush soft stuff for home runs. Bohm is an aggressive free swinger who doesn’t typically walk that much. Short at-bats where he makes routine outs on the first or second pitch have been an ongoing complaint about him throughout his four full seasons in Philly.
On the other hand, he doesn’t strike out much either and is very adept at spraying line drives the opposite way and hitting for good average. As a result, Bohm is a career .277 hitter, but his on-base marks are generally just slightly above average, and he’s typically good for just 15-20 home runs at this point. So even if we fully buy his improvements in 2024, we’re looking at an above average hitter, not a really good one consistently. Another element in his favor where the Tigers are concerned are his stronger numbers against left-handed pitching. He’s very solid against right-handers, but he does thrive hitting lefties, and that’s an element the Tigers certainly need.
Defensively, Bohm has been a slightly below average, but decent third baseman throughout his career, but he appears to have improved significantly over the past two seasons. In 2024, Bohm managed an above average grade from Statcast’s Outs Above Average (OAA) metric, but continued to grade out as an average defender according to Defensive Runs Saved (DRS). We’ll split the difference and expect average defense at the hot corner for another few years until he enters his 30’s.
The line on Bohm was always that he lacked some confidence and swagger in comparison to the stacked roster of seasoned veterans around him. The pressure of playing for a club and fanbase with huge expectations didn’t suit him well early in his career. He might benefit from a more hands-on coaching staff with better communication, which A.J. Hinch and his staff certainly would provide. Even so, Bohm has been in a lot of high pressure games already in his career and is now a seasoned veteran in his own right. Those concerns had dissipated completely until the injury and then the benching brought them back up again in October.
Bohm checks a lot of boxes for the Tigers. If he had a more disciplined approach he’d be perfect, but finding a perfect fit is pretty difficult. For two years until he reaches free agency, Bohm would really solidify the third base position and provide some balance to a lefty-heavy lineup.
Terms and conditions
The difficulty here is not just trading with Dombrowski, but the fact that the Tigers would be dealing for Bohm at peak value. He’s due to make $8.1 million in arbitration this year, and would be more expensive in his final year before free agency in 2026. When he does reach free agency he’ll be 30 years old already.
Scott Harris and Jeff Greenberg would have to be convinced that Bohm really has reached a new, sustainable level of performance, because the Phillies are not going to give him away, whether they’re targeting Alex Bregman, as some reports suggest, or not. Reports suggested that the Phillies initial discussions with the Mariners included either George Kirby or Logan Gilbert as the asking price. While ridiculous to expect a frontline starter like those two for Bohm, it was a clear indication that Dombrowski is going to hold out for the best deal possible, and expects a lot in return. The Tigers aren’t likely to offer Casey Mize and Jace Jung or something, and expect to make a deal.
Probably, Dombrowski would target Reese Olson in a trade for Bohm. That’s probably a non-starter for Harris and company, unless they can land another player that they like in the deal. Even then, the deal solves one problem for the Tigers while opening up another one. They could certainly trust themselves to build up the rotation with short-term deals for starting pitching, knowing they’ve got Jackson Jobe, Keider Montero, and Brant Hurter in the mix in 2025, but there’s a risk there even beyond the decent likelihood that Olson gets a little better and is a solid number two starter for the next five years until he reaches free agency. If the Tigers are so unwilling to spend on an Alex Bregman, they’re going to have to be creative and take some chances. Betting on their ability to to deal from their strength in pitching and figure out creative ways to build up the starting staff again might be a necessity.
So it’s a tough fit for the two clubs to manage a deal. Casey Mize and someone like Montero or Hurter seems like a fair deal on paper, but not enough to convince Dombrowski to make the trade. The Phillies roster is too good to expect them to take an assortment of 1-2 WAR players. They need another good starting pitcher, and while that’s a lot to ask for two years of a quality third baseman, finding a deal for the Tigers is pretty tough without basing the trade around Olson.
Maybe the Tigers can get another player they like in such a trade to make it work, and possibly Dombrowski would view someone like Hurter favorably along with Mize’s typically average performance and the possibility of a post-TJ breakout. If so, they could develop a deal that doesn’t require Olson, but that seems a little pie in the sky to me right now.
Whatever the cost, the Tigers will have to be pretty big believers in the idea that Bohm has reached a sustainable new level of performance for any deal to come together. If a trade idea for Bohm doesn’t feel a little painful from the Tigers’ side, it’s almost certainly not enough.