In criminal cases, motive establishes the “why,” as in why the defendant did what he did. Even when the evidence is circumstantial — there are no eyewitnesses and no murder weapon — motive can sway a jury.
What's the motive, therefore, behind the Phillies decision to trade Alec Baum? The evidence for trading a 28-year-old third baseman whose career is about to take off is circumstantial.
A standout hitter at Roncalli Catholic High School in Omaha, Nebraska, Bohm was drafted by the Phillies out of Wichita State third overall in the 2018 MLB draft.
He came to the Show in 2020 and was the Phillies regular third baseman by the season's end.
Bohn has the numbers that clubs like — on the upswing over his five years with the Phillies, i.e., his numbers get better each year. At times he's struggled defensively but has improved even when the Phillies switch him from third to first to rest Bryce Harper
Bohm is projected to make $8.1 million through arbitration in 2025, which could be his downfall — he has what is called a "value contract," meaning he's highly tradeable.
He's young, good, not locked into a long-term deal, and has a salary that will not impact a team's salary cap: a perfect example of a value contract.
Enter the Oakland A's.
Without a winning season since 2021, the A's intend to get over .500 in 2025. But they need a third baseman.
With a projected team salary of $60 million (Phillies $300 million), the A's have only so much to spend, and $8 million for a third baseman is a stroke of luck. They'll worry about 2026 later. That's how the A's operate.
On the other side of the tracks, the Phillies need a lights-out closer to win the East and get past the Mets and Dodgers in the post-season.
The A's have one named Mason Miller. At 26, Miller had 28 saves and a .249 ERA in just his second year in the big leagues. He throws high cheese, averaging 100 mph.
Phillies President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski daydreaming about Miller in the Phillies pen along with Strahm, Kerkering, Averado, Ruiz and Romano is akin to a half-starved Pitbull getting a whiff of a T-bone steak on the dining room table.
Having a player with a value contract the A's cherish, Dombrowski goes shopping. Holding his iPhone to his ear, Dombrowski was so excited he had trouble getting Bohm's name out.
The problem was the A's said no way, Jose. The A's may be poor, but they're not idiots.
The A's then turned around and signed Gio Urshela, a journeyman third baseman nobody's ever heard of, to a one-year, $2.5 million deal, and the Phillies still have Alex Bohm.
That’s why the A’s are the A’s.
The motive is clear here: The Phillies preferred Miller over Bohm not because they didn't like Bohm but because they liked Miller better. Miller filled a major need for Dombrowski, and then he'd fix third base later.
That's the game today, and the perfect example of a rich team using a value contract player like a carrot on a stick. A rich team up against the luxury tax unloading an $8.1 million contract (Bohm,) to a poor team in exchange for the league minimum salary of $740,000 (Miller).
But Oakland wasn’t born yesterday.
Are there other teams out there with players Dombrowski needs and likes better than Bohm? I don't know. Maybe, maybe not. Only time will tell.
But for now, the 26-year-old young man with curly long hair and a handsome smile — who pours cups of ice water filled with chewed-up sunflower seeds covered with spit on a teammate after each Phillies home win and laughs about it with his homeboys Stott and Marsh — is still a Philly.
It further proves the old adage that sometimes the best trades are the trades you don’t make.
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