Phils take Wichita State 3B Bohm with No. 3 overall pick
PHILADELPHIA » The 2015 major league baseball draft, 42 rounds thick, came and went, all without one cell-phone buzz to Alec Bohm, an infielder from Roncalli Catholic High in Omaha, Neb.
Three years later, the slimmer, stronger, more powerful third baseman from Wichita State didn’t last a half hour before the Phillies Monday made him the No. 3 overall pick in the 2018 draft.
A 6-foot-5 third baseman who can project, too, as a first baseman or a corner outfielder, the right-handed-hitting Bohm hit 16 home runs with 55 RBIs in 57 Shockers games, hitting .339. He struck out 28 times in 224 at-bats and had 39 walks.
“He can really hit,” said Johnny Almaraz, the Phils’ director of amateur scouting. “He’s got a lot of leverage in that swing. He can drive the ball out to all parts of the field. He’s got what I call widefield power, meaning that he can hit home runs from gap to gap.”
Bohm, who said he had no other college baseball offers, played three seasons in Wichita. But he most impressed the Phillies with his .351 average and five home runs with a wooden bat in 39 Cape Cod League games for college players last summer.
“That was very important,” Almaraz said. “It was very impor-
tant to the entire process that we have. You get to see them get with that wood in their hands. You get to see how they handle the barrel and how they can manipulate that through the strike zone and how they can drive the ball naturally. He’s one of those few college players who can accelerate that barrel through the strike zone and loft it for a pretty good distance.”
Bohm said he has no idea when he will sign, though it should be quickly. At 21, he will require minor-league seasoning, though Almaraz doesn’t expect him to linger long in their system.
“We were very, very lucky to get the guy that we were focusing on throughout a good part of the season,” Almaraz said. “Alec Bohm is a middle of the order bat. We were focusing on really good college pitching and middle of the order bats throughout the year.”
Oddly, no major league team was focused on Bohm out of high school, when he weighed 240 pounds. At Wichita, he slimmed down to 220, increasing his appeal to scouts.
“It was just my work ethic, really,” he said. “And I’ll do whatever it takes to stick there.”
Though a consensus high draft projection, Bohm was not universally expected to go as high as No. 3. Among the players the Phillies were said to be considering was Oregon State second baseman Nick Madrigal, who
would go No. 4 to the White Sox.
“The one thing over the years that I prefer is someone that’s got a chance to hit for average and power,” Almaraz said. “If you go and look at Alec Bohm, he’s a very low-strikeout, highwalk-rate hitter throughout his career. And that’s what we look for. I personally believe that that’s the type of hitter that plays at this level for a lot of years.”
On an MLB Network draft telecast from Secaucus, N.J., Bohm quickly climbed into a Phillies jersey and cap.
“I know they make a great cheesesteak there,” he said later, on a conference call with the press at Citizens Bank Park. “I’ve actually kind of taken a liking to the Phillies in the past couple of months. They have a young club and they’re doing better than they were expected to. I like them so far. They’ve kind of become one of my favorites.”
By then, the player once ignored in a draft was delighted to be selected at all.
“It’s crazy,” he said. “It’s kind of an unexplainable experience.”
The Phillies’ last three first-round picks, Adam Haseley (2015), Mickey Moniak (2016) and Cornelius Randolph (2015) are still chugging through their farm system. Their 2014 top pick, Aaron Nola, has emerged as one of the National League’s most reliable starting pitchers.
The Phillies believe Bohm has benefitted from his college experience.
“We did see him out of high school,” Almaraz said. “He was someone we felt needed to go to college. He was actually bigger than what he is now. He has worked hard to get his body into the type of shape it is in. Throughout the three years at Wichita State, his head coach Todd Butler has done a tremendous job developing him both as an infielder and as a hitter.
“He has progressed and developed at that school. When you have a chance to lift and play three or four games a week and then have that entire offseason to be a full-time baseball player at the collegiate level, you have a chance to progress slowly and gain strength. You become better automatically through natural maturation and growth.”
Because they signed Carlos Santana and Jake Arrieta as free agents, the Phillies were forced to surrender their second- and third-round picks.
“The way I view it is our second-round pick was Santana and our third was Arrieta,” Almaraz said. “If you can do that every year, it puts your organization in a position to win. I feel that those were great calls. I support that 100 percent.”