And then there are prospects who start bending the schedule around them.
Aidan Miller is beginning to feel like the second kind.
The Phillies don’t have to say his name publicly to understand what’s happening internally. They just have to look at the calendar. Because as Miller accelerates through the system, Alec Bohm enters the final year of club control with the Philadelphia Phillies — and the overlap is no longer theoretical.
It’s structural.
Miller’s 2024 season announced him as more than upside. Across three levels — Low-A Clearwater, High-A Jersey Shore and Double-A Reading — he hit .261/.366/.446 with 11 home runs, 60 RBIs and 23 stolen bases in 102 games. The slash line mattered. The discipline mattered more: a 12.1 percent walk rate and a strikeout rate just above 21 percent. For a 20-year-old infielder facing older pitching, that profile travels.
The Phillies pushed him again in 2025.
Between Double-A and Triple-A, Miller logged more than 500 plate appearances and posted a line in the neighborhood of .270/.350/.440, reaching the 15–18 home run range while continuing to control the strike zone. The walk rate held in double digits. The strikeouts stayed manageable. The stolen bases remained part of the game. He didn’t just survive upper-level pitching.
He adjusted to it.
That’s when prospects stop being long-term ideas and start becoming near-term leverage.
Meanwhile, Bohm has continued to be what he has become: a productive, above-average everyday third baseman. In 2024, he delivered one of his most complete seasons — .280/.332/.448, 20 home runs, 97 RBIs, and a 113 wRC+. He was worth roughly three wins above replacement depending on the model you prefer. The defense, once a headline for the wrong reasons, stabilized around league average. He was steady. Reliable. Central to the lineup.
In 2025, the numbers leveled slightly but remained solid: .287/.331/.409, 11 home runs, 59 RBIs, and a 105 wRC+, good for roughly 1.7 fWAR. Productive? Yes. Franchise-altering? That’s the harder question.
And that’s the tension point.
Bohm turns 30 during the 2026 season. A player entering free agency at that age, coming off multiple seasons in the 2–3 WAR range, reasonably seeks long-term security — likely a deal that carries him into his mid-30s. On today’s market, that can push into the $18–22 million annual range for a solid, above-average regular at third base.
That’s not a criticism.
It’s the cost of competence.
But front offices don’t just evaluate players in isolation. They evaluate them in context. Trea Turner is signed long term at shortstop. The left side of the infield has financial gravity already attached to it. And if Miller continues trending toward a 2.5–3.0 WAR profile — with power that projects into the 20-home-run range and on-base skills that suggest lineup stability — the internal comparison becomes unavoidable.
This is not about pushing Bohm aside.
It’s about organizational sequencing.
If the Phillies believe Miller can approximate similar production during his pre-arbitration and early arbitration years, the difference between paying market rate for veteran certainty and paying near the league minimum for ascending upside becomes strategic. That’s how competitive windows sustain beyond their first wave.
And that’s why Miller matters now.
Not because he’s already better.
But because he’s close enough that the Phillies can plan without fear.
Prospects stall. Veterans surge in contract years. October rewrites reputations. All of that remains true.
But as Miller’s minor-league track record grows — power, patience, athleticism — the conversation shifts from “someday” to “soon.”
The Phillies don’t have to make a decision today.
They just have to decide how much of tomorrow is already here.
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