March 18, 2024
Nathan Ray Seebeck/USA Today Sports
Alec Bohm is looking for another jump in power in 2024.
JUPITER, FL — In August of 2014, the Phillies set a rather impressive and under-discussed record.
The trio of Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and Jimmy Rollins set the record for most games played together as an infield in Major League Baseball at 888 games. The Phillies teams of that era from 2006-2014 saw changes to the pitching staff and in the outfield, but that trio remained a constant.
As the 2024 season approaches nearly 10 years later, the Phillies might have the makings for another Mount Rushmore-type infield.
| Position | Player | Contract years left |
| First base | Bryce Harper | 8 |
| Second base | Bryson Stott | 4 |
| Shortstop | Trea Turner | 10 |
| Third base | Alec Bohm | 3 |
It's only their first spring training together as a proper infield core, but the aforementioned quartet of Bryce Harper, Bryson Stott, Trea Turner and Alec Bohm could be manning the dirt at Citizens Bank Park for 888-plus games themselves.
"It's a group of guys that has one more full year together," Bohm told PhillyVoice ahead of Saturday's spring exhibition against the Marlins. "Trea and Bryce have history all the way back to Washington, me and Stott being drafted a year apart, the communication aspect of stuff, the nonverbal and all that, that sort of chemistry keeps growing. We sort of just move together without talking, shifting and stuff, the double play combo up the middle and Bryce getting more and more comfortable at first base."
With Harper replacing Rhys Hoskins, who moved on to Milwaukee in free agency after losing his contract 2023 season to a torn ACL, the infield is locked in for the foreseeable future. Harper and Turner have All-Star bats already and Stott and Bohm are working hard to develop their own.
Harper's defensive move to first is particularly impressive to Bohm, who himself has 104 starts at the position for the Phillies.
Said Bohm: "For somebody who hadn't played infield in the big leagues ever to come off Tommy John Surgery and DH for basically two years, and then come in two-thirds of the way through the season, and picking up as fast as he did and being as good as he was over there, obviously with Bryce Harper it's not surprising. But first base gets overlooked as being an easy position but there's a lot going on over there and it's not as easy as the industry might think."
The Phillies will be returning home to South Philadelphia next week with almost the entire roster intact from their 2023 squad, which fell a Game 7 short of a second consecutive NL pennant. Aside from a few bullpen and bench pieces, the only major addition this offseason was Whit Merrifield, but Bohm says the All-Star and utility outfielder has fit right in within the Phillies' clubhouse.
"Even Whit, it's like he was here last year already," Bohm said. "It's feeling a lot of the same type of fun and joking around but when it's time to work, we're going to go about it the right way. You come to the clubhouse every day and see the same guys, you know what to expect from everybody and the trust keeps growing.
"It's been a lot of fun. You have to cherish it while you have it. Not a lot of guys get to go with the same group like we have for the last couple years."
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