Thomson contacts Bohm amid trade rumors: ‘I just want to reassure him’ originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
DALLAS — It’s no secret that the Phillies could turn to the trade market this offseason in an attempt to improve and several of their players have been involved in rumors since the season ended, including Alec Bohm.
The Phillies aren’t looking to trade him, but he has value as a 28-year-old All-Star third baseman under team control for manageable salaries over the next two seasons.
Seattle weather reported that the Phillies requested Logan Gilbert or George Kirby in trade talks with the Mariners over Bohm. That shows how much they value him, because Gilbert and Kirby are two near-aces, two of the top 10 starting pitchers in the American League.
MLB.com reported early in the offseason that the Royals had inquired about Bohm. They then traded for Jonathan India.
Bohm would have had to live in an underground bunker with no outside communications to have missed all this, and Phillies manager Rob Thomson said he spoke to the third baseman on Monday.
“We’ve been texting him, but I talked to him on the phone yesterday,” Thomson said Tuesday from the lobby of the Hilton Anatole during the MLB winter meetings. “He’s in Houston right now. He’s training. He has a training center that he goes to every year. So he’s been there for about a month, I think. He’s going to go to Clearwater for Christmas, then back to Houston and then back to Clearwater for spring training.
“He’s in good shape. He works hard, he lifts and he hits well. I just wanted to let him know that we’re not – this guy is a very good player. We’re not shopping him. But because He’s a good player, he gets a lot of interest from other teams.
“Obviously you have to do your homework, talk to people and listen to them.”
The Phillies won’t make a trade for the sake of making one. They should be improved. It would be difficult for them to improve while eliminating their cleanup hitter who has put up 97 runs each of the last two seasons and has been their best bat with runners in scoring position since arriving in the majors in 2020.
But he has more trade value than any other player the Phillies would realistically part with, hence the rumors.
“I think this is probably the first time he’s ever experienced something like this,” Thomson said, “so I just want to reassure him. It’s part of the work that you have to overcome. Because this is the first Once, I thought it was important to reach out.”
President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said Monday the Phillies don’t have a particular priority after signing Jordan Romano to a one-year contract to pitch in the back of their bullpen. They’re looking for every avenue for improvement, so a move for a starting pitcher can’t be ruled out either, even though that’s their strength.
“We’ve had so many different conversations and different thoughts that I’m not sure what direction we might take if we do something else,” Dombrowski said. “I’m not sure what I would say is our priority other than getting better.
“If you told me we joined the same players as today, I still think we have a good attacking club. We’re not going to force things to happen just to get them going. But what were we in -we… in a lot of places we were top five in baseball last year It didn’t necessarily look like that in the last four games of the season, but we have a good offensive team But we will continue to. ‘try to do it we also improve and we. “We’ve had a lot of conversations with the clubs, and I’m sure we will continue to do so over the coming days.”
