DALLAS — It's no secret that the Phillies could look 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, most notably 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 the next two seasons.
The Seattle Times reported that the Phillies asked for Logan Gilbert or George Kirby during trade talks with the Mariners about Bohm. That shows how highly 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 inquired about Bohm. They later traded for Jonathan India.
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Bohm would have to be living in an underground bunker with no outside communication to have missed all of this, and Phillies manager Rob Thomson said he spoke to the third baseman Monday.
"We've texted, but I talked to him on the phone yesterday," Thomson said Tuesday from the lobby at the Hilton Anatole during MLB's Winter Meetings. "He's in Houston right now. He's working out. He's got a workout place that he goes to every year. So he's been there for, I think, about a month. He's going to go to Clearwater for Christmas and then back to Houston and then back to Clearwater for Spring Training.
"He's in good shape. He's working hard, lifting, and he's actually hitting all right. I just wanted to let him know we're not — this guy is a really good player. We're not shopping him. But because he's a good player, there's a whole lot of interest in him from other teams.
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"Obviously, you have to do your homework and talk to people and listen."
The Phillies are not going to make a trade for the sake of making one. It would have to improve them. It would be hard for them to improve while dealing away their cleanup hitter who drove in 97 runs each of the last two seasons and who has been their best bat with runners in scoring position since he arrived in the majors in 2020.
But he has more trade value than any other player the Phillies would realistically part with, thus the rumors.
"I think this is probably the first time he's gone through something like this," Thomson said, "so I just want to ease his mind. It's part of the business that you've got to get through. Because it's the first time, I thought it was important to reach out."
President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said Monday that the Phillies don't have a specific priority after signing Jordan Romano to a one-year contract to pitch at the back end of their bullpen. They're seeking out all paths to improvement, which is why a move for a starting pitcher also can't be ruled out despite it being their strength.
"We've had so many different conversations and different thoughts, I'm not sure which ways we may go if we do other things," Dombrowski said. "I'm not sure what else I would say is our priority, other than to get better.
"If you told me that we went in with the same players we have right now, I still think we have a good offensive club. We're not going to force things to happen to just get them done. But what were we in … in a lot of spots, top-five offense in baseball last year. It didn’t look like it the last four games of the season necessarily, but we have a good offensive team as it is. But we'll continue to try to get better, too, and we've had a lot of conversations with clubs, and I'm sure we'll continue to do that over the next few days."
