Alec Bohm is the symbol of changes that might be coming to the Phillies. Who else could be on the way out?

Let’s play a game of Name That Hitter, using statistical hints of batting average/on-base percentage/slugging and other relevant numbers through Thursday.

Ready? Here goes.

Cue the Jeopardy music.

OK, lock in your answers.

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Hitter A is Bo Bichette, object of the Phillies’ desire in January when they offered the free-agent infielder a seven-year, $200 million contract. Bichette took the Mets’ bid of fewer years (three) but higher salary ($42 million annually, $126 million total), plus opt-outs after this season and next.

If they’d landed Bichette, the Phillies planned to trade Alec Bohm, according to multiple sources at the time. And Bohm happens to be Hitter B, with eerily similar production at a fraction of the salary ($10.2 million).

Sometimes, the best moves are ones that aren’t made.

This isn’t meant to suggest that Bohm had a particularly good season. The Phillies dropped him from the cleanup spot after two weeks and benched him for two games in early May. He had a .593 OPS through June 3. At the All-Star break, he was hitting .215 with a .278 on-base percentage and .632 OPS.

(It was even worse for Bohm off the field. In March, he sued his parents, alleging multimillion dollar mismanagement of his finances. They reached a settlement three weeks ago.)

But Bohm found salvation in the second half. Entering the weekend, he was batting .312 since the break, ninth in the majors, with an .824 OPS that was tied for 33rd.

“I was in a pretty deep hole early on, and I think I just chipped away,” said Bohm, who also moved from third base to first when the Phillies rearranged their infield after the deadline trade for Luis Arraez. “For me, it was kind of focusing less on, ‘What’s my batting average today?’ and more on, ‘All right, let’s go out and try to win a game today.’

“Just one of those things you can always look back on and never get too low or panic too much throughout a season. Right?”

» READ MORE: From May: The Phillies have an Alec Bohm problem. What are their options? And how long can they wait?

It’s a mature perspective from a 30-year-old whose maturity has been called into question over the last six seasons. But it may also reflect the realization that these are likely his last days with the Phillies.

Bohm will be a free agent. And after the Phillies talked about trading him two offseasons ago and were poised to replace him with Bichette last winter, it would be a surprise if they didn’t let him walk out the door now.

It also makes Bohm the symbol of changes that may be coming to an organization that has been marked by extreme continuity since 2022. Barring a deep run through October, several longstanding players — as well as interim manager Don Mattingly — face a cloudy future at the corner of 11th and Pattison.

Bohm tends to get judged on things he doesn’t do well, notably his defense and a lack of home-run power for a mountain of a 6-foot-4, 218-pound man.

Yet as one scout said when Dave Dombrowski convened his top lieutenants at the trade deadline, “When you see a player every day, you have a tendency to look at their downside. But if you compare his numbers, how many guys have more RBIs than he does?”

Try 17 since 2023, including only one who plays for the Phillies (Kyle Schwarber). Entering the weekend, Bohm needed two RBIs to reach 90 for the third time in four seasons.

» READ MORE: From spring training: With free agency looming, Alec Bohm is prepared to bat cleanup (again) for the Phillies

In a sense, then, Bohm represents an organizational success story. Drafted third overall out of college in 2018, developed through the farm system, and brought to the majors in 2020, he has averaged 564 plate appearances per year while batting .274, including a .315 mark with runners in scoring position. He was even an All-Star in 2024.

Along the way, Bohm got demoted to triple A in 2021 and nearly punched a ticket out of town early the next season. After committing three errors in three innings and getting roundly booed, he got caught on camera saying, “I (bleeping) hate this place.” He was contrite after the game and largely forgiven by the fan base.

If anything, the Phillies miscast Bohm as cleanup-hitting protection for Bryce Harper and overvalued him at his peak. But replacing him isn’t straightforward.

Aidan Miller once appeared poised to inherit third base from Bohm. But a back condition sidelined the 23-year-old top prospect until September and limited him to 34 plate appearances, including the postseason with double-A Reading.

The Phillies have scouted 27-year-old third baseman Teruaki Sato, who mashed 36 homers this season and 40 last year in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. But he bats from the left side, like Harper and Schwarber (and Bryson Stott and Brandon Marsh), and some major-league evaluators wonder if he’s better suited for first base.

Oh, and there’s always Bichette, who could opt-out of his Mets deal and reenter the market. But will he really walk away from that $42 million annual salary after a down year? And would the Phillies chase after him again after feeling spurned last winter?

Meanwhile, Bohm is playing out what’s left of his Phillies career back in the middle of the order as the hottest hitter down the stretch in an overall chilly month for the offense. He entered the weekend with a .319 average and .869 OPS in September; as a team, the Phillies were batting .225 with a .655 OPS this month.

“The numbers are what the numbers are,” Bohm said of turning his brutally slow start into a respectable finish. “Can’t really do much about it at this point. So, let’s try to go help the team win and contribute in some way. Getting lost in that for a while, they’ve found their way back to, I guess, more of the norm for myself.”

Just when the Phillies thought they could depend again on José Alvarado, he entered a 1-1 game in the eighth inning Thursday night and walked the leadoff batter before giving up a stolen base, an RBI single up the middle, and another single to left field.

How’s that for a snapshot of his tenure here?

Dombrowski became the Phillies’ president of baseball operations in December 2020. His first move was the three-way trade that brought Alvarado from the Rays. The big lefty has been dominant at times, injury-prone at others. He gave up the World Series-clinching homer to Houston’s Yordan Alvarez in 2022 and got suspended for 80 games last season for failing a drug test. But he also has unleashed the fifth-most pitches at 98 mph or more since 2021.

In all, Alvarado has a 3.86 ERA and 378 strikeouts and 152 walks in 293⅔ innings with the Phillies. Opponents have hit .227 against him; lefties have hit .219.

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This season, lefties are batting .333 with an .865 OPS against Alvarado. Maybe he needs to come inside more to lefties. Maybe hitters are sitting on his signature sinker. Maybe he needs to throw more cutters.

In any case, as Mattingly decides whether he can trust Alvarado in the postseason, the Phillies face a longer-term decision about whether to bring him back (again) in free agency.

Orion Kerkering can’t be a free agent until after the 2029 season. But the righty is eligible for salary arbitration for the first time. And after posting a 9.43 ERA since the All-Star break, including a 10.66 mark since the middle of August, he became “unusable,” in Mattingly’s words.

The Phillies demoted Kerkering to triple A last weekend, prompting a larger question: Would a change of scenery be best for everyone involved?

Let’s come back to that.

The Phillies drafted Kerkering in 2022 and brought him to the majors 14 months later after he climbed four levels of the farm system in one season. Thrust into high-leverage situations in October, he faltered in the 2023 NL Championship Series against Arizona.

Even so, Kerkering dominated for stretches in each of the last three seasons, looking at times like a closer-in-waiting. But he was complicit in the bullpen meltdown in the 2024 divisional round against the Mets and made the ill-fated throwing error that ended last season in Game 4 at Dodger Stadium.

It’s been ... a lot. And in a short time.

» READ MORE: Orion Kerkering has faced his NLDS error head-on, and with a little humor: ‘I’m not going to let it define me’

So, about that change of scenery. It’ll surely be a topic during the Phillies’ organizational meetings after the season.

For now, they sent Kerkering to Allentown to continue pitching at their “stay ready” camp, although he’s ineligible for a call-up until Oct. 6 unless there’s an injury.

“It looks like he needs a break to get away from here,” Dombrowski said. “Sometimes you need to step away.”

Earlier this week, the Mets and Red Sox removed the interim label from managers Andy Green and Chad Tracy, respectively, with each receiving a three-year contract to stay at the wheel of those clubs.

Has there been more thought to Mattingly’s future in the dugout beyond this season?

“No, there has not been,” Dombrowski said in a text message. “[We] have felt it is better to wait until our season is complete.”

That has been the Phillies’ stance since April 28, when they elevated Mattingly from bench coach after firing Rob Thomson. But the lack of commitment to Mattingly has only fueled speculation throughout the sport that the managerial seat is being held for Alex Cora.

» READ MORE: Dave Dombrowski: ‘Better to wait until our season is complete’ before deciding on Don Mattingly’s future

Dombrowski hired Cora with the Red Sox, and they won the World Series in their first season together in 2018. They remain close friends, with Dombrowski calling Cora “one of the finest managers in the game of baseball” and comparing him favorably to Hall of Fame managers Jim Leyland and Tony La Russa.

The Red Sox fired Cora on April 25 amid a 10-17 start. Dombrowski offered him the Phillies’ job the next day, even though he had not yet let Thomson go. Cora, who will be paid by the Red Sox through the end of the next season, opted to take time with his family.

How’s that for palace intrigue?

Mattingly, 65, is under contract with the Phillies for another year and has expressed interest in staying on as the manager. His son, Preston, is the general manager under Dombrowski.

In 2022, the Phillies took the interim tag off Thomson and gave him a two-year contract after winning the wild-card miniseries. How many rounds would the team need to win for Mattingly to receive similar treatment?

Especially if Cora wants to get back in a dugout.

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