My comment about Bohm not having the bat for 1B was taking a longer view than “against LHP until Harper returns.” Barring an acquisition, clearly Bohm is included in the Phillies’ best lineup against LHP. But against righties, zambonir has it right. Darick Hall has a career OPS against righties that’s more than 200 points higher than Bohm’s. Sure, it’s a small sample size for Hall, but it’s a pretty big sample size for Bohm. And my earlier point about Bohm’s 2022 offensive numbers being worse than every regular 1B in the league outside of Yuli Gurriel still stands.
Why would we think that difference will vanish? Based on Bohm’s four home runs against the Orioles and Pirates in spring training? Then again, Hall has five homers, and Hoskins has four. Actually, in spring training, many players have a higher OPS than Bohm including Hall, Hoskins, Sosa, Clemens, and Cave.
It’s not hard to believe that almost anyone could be a better fielding first baseman than Hoskins (though I’m not convinced that Hall or Schwarber would be). After all, Bohm had only one more error than Hoskins while playing a much harder position. But Bohm would be playing an unfamiliar position, and he is bad at his current position. There really isn’t much evidence to suggest it will make much difference defensively which of Bohm and Hoskins play 1B/DH when they are at those positions.
I would love for Bohm to be a 20 HR a year .300 hitter, and I'm rooting for it to happen. But it seems like a longshot. He has taken two full seasons of plate appearances to put up his 24 career homers. He certainly could hit .300, but his career OBP is .324. Rather than count on his being that good against RHP in 2023, I’d rather play Hall until he proves he can’t handle it. After Harper returns, it’s really a moot point since Hoskins is so much better offensively than Bohm. The only question then against RHP is whether to play Sosa or Bohm at 3B.
After Hoskins’ likely departure after this season, there should be a large number of better options than playing Bohm at 1B. Not only 1B acquisitions or promotions, should anyone break out, but outfield options as well, with Schwarber or Castellanos moving to 1B.
So playing Bohm at 1B against righties until Harper returns? OK. But barring another injury or a collapse by Hall, it seems like a losing strategy otherwise.
