The Yankees Are Interested in Alec Bohm

By EJ Fagan

November 2026

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The following post comes from EJ Fagan's Substack, Baseball Is Life. It is shared with permission.

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We have reporting from both Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman that the Yankees have been talking to former Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm, although Chris Kuty has reporting suggesting it’s not that strong.

But should they be? Bohm is coming off a down year:

The .698 OPS is kind of nasty, although his .327 xwOBA is close to his solid .334 career mark. He also hit closer to his career norms (.270/.338/.409) after May. He’s got a strong high contact, square-up type swing that the Yankees could use. And he’s a righty.

The bigger problem is that he has Heliot Ramos-like platoon splits. He has a career .853 OPS against left-handed pitching and .687 OPS against righted pitching. While the latter is better than Ryan McMahon against anyone, Bohm would be more of a Paul Goldschmidt / Amed Rosario replacement than a true starter.

And then there’s the defense. Bohm is an awful defender at third. He played mostly first base after the Phillies traded for Luis Arraez last year.

Bohm isn’t going to cost too much. MLB Trade Rumors didn’t rank him in their top 50 free agents, while Fangraphs ranked him 34th and projected a one year, $13 million deal.

I can’t help but feel a bit underwhelmed. Is he better than Ryan McMahon? Yes. Does he balance out the team? Yes. Is he an average MLB third baseman? No. He’s an improvement, but barely. He only costs money, so you could conceivably improve the roster elsewhere, but third base is also their best position to improve via trade.

Bohm should be a bench player. Like Ramos, he has no defensive value and his only skill is mashing lefties. He’s a big upgrade over Amed Rosario and is more versatile than Paul Goldschmidt, but really shouldn’t be a major league starter.

But that requires Bohm to have a decent platoon/defensive replacement partner. Ryan McMahon is not decent. He posted a .662 OPS against lefties last year with just slightly better than average defense. Who else could you pair with Bohm? I’m struggling to find anyone better than McMahon.

But $13 million is way too much for a bench player. My guess is that if the Yankees sign Bohm, he’s the primary third baseman who gets defensively replaced by Jose Cabarello when they are leading.

I’m against.