Philadelphia Phillies Rising Star Turned Into Elite Hitter Because of This

After one of the Philadelphia Phillies star players has turned into one of the best hitters in the game through the first part of the season, this metric could explain how that happened.

May 22, 2024; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Phillies third base Alec Bohm (28) reacts after hitting a two RBI double during the sixth inning against the Texas Rangers at Citizens Bank Park. | Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

The Philadelphia Phillies got a much-needed day off on Thursday after avoiding getting swept in their finale against the San Francisco Giants to close out their road trip that saw them lose two series in a row.

Losing streaks happen, and just because it hasn't happened much for the Phillies this year, doesn't mean this drop in play is cause for alarm.

Getting set for six games at home against the St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers, they're hoping they can get back on track before heading overseas for two contests against their division rival New York Mets in London.

One player who is looking to right the ship right now is Alec Bohm.

The 27-year-old has had a breakout season for Philadelphia. He sits with the fourth-most RBI (47) in Major League Baseball, while leading in doubles (22), and is inside the Top-25 of batting average (.308), on-base percentage (.366), and slugging percentage (.493) for qualified hitters.

However, things have cooled off in a noticeable way for the rising star third baseman.

Over his last seven games, he's slashing .154/.214/.231 with only one RBI across his 26 at-bats.

Poor hitting streaks happen over the course of this long season, so there shouldn't be alarm bells going off about Bohm.

In fact, there are some advanced statistics that suggest what he did earlier in the year could be sustainable.

Interesting way to look at Alec Bohm's progression: he's really leaning into the power pull/center, and stopped trying to (or just 'doing it,' if not 'trying to,') hit hard oppo, because it wasn't really working.

[showing: exit velo] pic.twitter.com/vNm7tidq0a

— Mike Petriello (@mike_petriello) May 29, 2024

When taking a look at this, the Phillies' infielder has clearly focused on hitting the ball to his pull side and center field. The exit velocity for the baseballs hit in those zones are the highest of his career, a great sign that this new approach has had early success.

Bohm is never going to be a huge home run guy.

The most he's ever had in a season was last year with 20, but if he's continuing to drive in runs at the rate he's currently been doing this season, then that's all that really matters for this lineup.

It will be interesting to see when, or if, Bohm is able to break out of this slump.

He might have been so hot early that it skewed the perception of what he should do at the plate for the rest of the year, but, based upon the numbers that are resulting from his new approach, it looks like Bohm is going to have the best year of his career and firmly establish himself as one of the best hitters in baseball.