The Philadelphia Phillies parted ways with former hitting coach Joe Dillon a few weeks ago and then hired Kevin Long from the Washington Nationals to take his spot. In his introductory press conference last Wednesday, Long already had targeted one Phillies player that he wanted to begin working with immediately. Much like Dillon did last season with Rhys Hoskins, which turned out to be extremely important, Long plans on heading to Clearwater, Florida next week to work with Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm.

Bohm struggled in his sophomore campaign with the Phillies after slashing .338/.400/.481 with a .881 OPS during his COVID shortened rookie year in 2020. He finished the year with 4 home runs and 23 RBI in 44 games. After finishing second in the NL Rookie of the Year voting, Bohm followed up last year slashing .247/.305/.342 with a .647 OPS and only seven home runs and 47 RBI in 115 games.

Bohm obviously struggled in the field, but that was an area that everyone knew he had to improve in. He finished the season ranked as one of the worst third basemen in the entire MLB with a -13 run difference. What we were not expecting, was Bohm to struggle so much from the plate. Pitchers literally threw him fastball strikes and Bohm could not manage to hit them. It was tough to watch and ultimately, landed Bohm back in the minor leagues for the later part of the season.

Here is Kevin Long talking about Bohm courtesy of Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia:

“I saw it with Robinson Cano and Brett Gardner when they were young and Melky Cabrera. I’ve also seen it with the Juan Sotos of the world who, if they can come in at league minimum or just over, they really help your ballclub.

“So, Alec is a big part of the Philadelphia Phillies and us winning a championship, as is every other player. I saw him in 2020 and he was one of the best hitters in the league. It’s my job to figure out what was going on then and try to get him back to that high level of performance.”

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For the Phillies, developing young talent has been a constant struggle. Scott Kingery fell off the face of the earth. Adam Haseley did as well for other reasons that are still unknown. Joe Girardi has already stated that they full expect Alec Bohm to be their starting third basemen of the future. Getting the young third baseman back on track in 2022 is extremely important for the Phillies. We saw the glaring holes in the lineup as they stumbled through September to miss the playoffs for the 10th season in a row.

It’s great to see Kevin Long ready to get to work and targeting Alec Bohm as his first project. I can’t go through another disappointing prospect. Bohm is important to this team and needs to return to be the player he was in 2020.

Mandatory Credit: Getty Images