Phillies Predicted to Replace Alec Bohm With Star Third Baseman
Phillies Predicted to Replace Alec Bohm With Star Third Baseman originally appeared on Athlon Sports.
The Philadelphia Phillies' Alec Bohm has been the topic of trade speculation recently, so it is no surprise that a recent mock draft is naming his eventual replacement.
Advertisement
The MLB Draft starts in just a month and the Phillies are picking 26th overall. Mike Axisa of CBS Sports named third-baseman Gavin Fien out of Great Oak High School in Temecula, California as the expected pick.
He is MLB.com's 26th ranked prospect in the draft and projects as a third-baseman, but plays some shortstop and outfield as well. According to MLB.com, the 18-year-old stands at 6'3" and 200lbs,
"Fien could hear his name called as early as the 10-15 range somewhere. Getting all the way to Philadelphia at No. 26 would be a great outcome for the team," Axisa writes.
Philadelphia Phillies infielder Alec Bohm (28) reacts as he rounds the bases after hitting a home run against the Chicago Cubs in the seventh inning at Citizens Bank Park.Kyle Ross-Imagn Images
However, the praise does not stop there. MLB.com has the University of Texas commit as one of the best right-handed hitters in the draft class.
Advertisement
"Many evaluators thought he was the best prep hitter in the class. Fien hit everywhere he went, winning MLB Develops MVP honors at Major League Baseball's High School All-American Game with a pair of hits and RBIs and batting .400 for Team USA in the 18U World Cup qualifier in Panama," the site says.
But what happens to Bohm, a former third overall pick back in 2018, who is still just 28-year-old and has been one of the team's best hitters this season?
Trade predictions have been on the table to a multitude of teams, including the Mariners and Tigers, who both need help in the corner infield. Still, it makes more sense to hang onto Bohm for a while longer until Fien makes his way to the big leagues. Even then, Fien may move positions, which could help keep the vet around for even longer.
Related: Phillies Predicted to Make Decision on Andrew Painter Soon
This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 14, 2025, where it first appeared.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Inter Milan Hoping ‘Ultra-Rigid' Thunderstorm Protocol Doesn't Hold Up Club World Cup Clash Vs Fluminense
Inter Milan are hoping that 'ultra-rigid' thunderstorm protocols in Charlotte don't hold up their match against Fluminense. Today's print edition of Rome-based newspaper Corriere dello Sport, via FCInterNews, note that lightning anywhere in the area could hold up the match. Advertisement The match will determine which team advances to the quarterfinal. There, they will face the winner of today's other round of sixteen match between Manchester City and Al-Hilal. The Italian and Brazilian giants will play at the Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina. Inter Hope 'Ultra-Rigid' Thunderstorm Protocols Don't Hold Up Fluminense Match PASADENA, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 17: Cristian Chivu, Head Coach of FC Internazionale Milano, reacts during the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 group E match between CF Monterrey and FC Internazionale Milano at Rose Bowl Stadium on June 17, 2025 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by) And the location of today's match will be highly significant. The Nerazzurri played their last match in Seattle. On the west coast of the United States, the temperatures were quite mild compared to where the team are now. However, conditions in Charlotte are very hot, as well as humid. Advertisement Furthermore, this type of weather is certainly highly conducive to potential thunderstorm activity. And that could pose problems for Inter's efforts to kick off their match against Fluminense in a timely manner. There had already been lengthy delays to the match between Benfica and Chelsea at the Bank of America Stadium on Saturday. That had been due to lightning strikes in the vicinity of the area. And as the Corriere dello Sport note, the protocols around lightning in Charlotte are 'ultra-rigid.' If there are any lightning strikes spotted in the vicinity of the stadium, the match must wait. Therefore, Inter will wait nervously to see whether this will be a factor in their match against Fluminense.
New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
If Caitlin Clark's worth a ‘billion' to WNBA, why is she paid only a fraction of that?
In 1997, economists from MIT and Cambridge co-authored a paper on the economic value of NBA superstars, focusing on Chicago Bulls' icon Michael Jordan. At the time, Jordan had already won four NBA championships, briefly retired, then returned to the league. The window in which Jordan was away from the NBA provided a clearer glimpse into the value he brought to it. Advertisement Beyond what he meant to the Bulls, the two economists, Jerry Hausman and Gregory K. Leonard, found that Jordan generated $53 million to other teams during the 1991-92 season — around $121 million today — through analyzing star-powered factors such as gate revenue, and local and national TV revenues. Jordan was making around $3 million in salary at the time — around $7 million today. 'A significant portion of an NBA team's revenue can be traced to Michael Jordan,' they wrote. Caitlin Clark has produced a similar financial effect on the WNBA. Since she entered the league as the top draft pick in May 2024, the Indiana Fever have become the WNBA's equivalent of The Beatles. Everywhere Clark goes, eyes follow: when she attends Pacers games, Taylor Swift's Eras Tour concert or a Kansas City Chiefs game. Even when she played in an LPGA Tour pro-am, fans flocked to the course. Clark and the Fever have set WNBA viewership records, consistently sell out Gainbridge Fieldhouse and prompt some opponents to move their games to larger-capacity NBA arenas. The Fever unveiled T-shirts this season with the tag-line 'Every Game is a Home Game.' 'To see the influence that she has on people, bringing people out here, and to see how amazing of an influence she is for sports, (that) was really cool to see firsthand,' said Nelly Korda, the world's No. 1 golfer after playing nine holes with Clark this past November. Usually, where such attention is attracted, money follows to an athlete's pocket. Clark has gained millions in endorsement deals with Gatorade, State Farm, Nike and others (valued at $11 million in 2024, per Sportico), but it's obvious her value to the WNBA — and women's sports, more broadly — is significantly higher than the $78,066 salary she is contracted to receive. 'In my lifetime, we had Muhammad Ali, we had Michael Jordan, we had Tiger Woods, and to me, it's early, but we have Caitlin Clark,' said John Kosner, a former ESPN executive turned industry consultant. 'People who don't care and don't follow the sport that she plays (in) have been driven not just to watch, but to watch avidly.' .@CaitlinClark22 delights fans in Dallas 👏@IndianaFever | #IONWNBA — WNBA on ION (@IONWNBA) June 27, 2025 However, she doesn't receive compensation like sport's other Mount Rushmore figures. She's unlikely to ever be paid even close to what she is really worth to the league. Her agent, Excel's Erin Kane, said she didn't think that would ever be possible. So what is Clark worth to the WNBA? 'It's hard to believe she's not worth close to a billion to the league,' said one industry source not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. Advertisement Clark, of course, is just one of many WNBA players who is vastly underpaid — a key prompt for players currently renegotiating their collective bargaining agreement with the league. But because of how much Clark drives the league's economy, the delta between her salary, which is two-thirds the league average of $117,133 (as of opening night), and her actual value is especially stark. Consider that her salary is around 0.02 percent of the Fever's recent valuation by Forbes of $340 million. Television ratings, attendance and merchandise sales are just some factors economists use to assess an athlete's value. That was the focus of the Jordan study three decades ago and remains relevant today. The Caitlin Clark Effect is well-documented and taps into such categories for analysis. But Judd Cramer, an economics lecturer at Harvard, also cites the dramatic increases in both media rights deal valuations and franchise valuations across women's sports since Clark's senior year at Iowa when thinking about her value. The Fever's valuation increased 273 percent from 2024 to 2025, according to Sportico, and the average valuation of WNBA franchises rose 180 percent in that span, too. 'The idea that she (is) maybe worth 1,000 times her salary in franchise value is not inconceivable,' Cramer said. Under the current CBA, the WNBA supermax contract is $249,244 and Clark would have to finish her rookie contract (four years) before earning that. A lot would have to change in the women's basketball landscape for her to earn 1,000 times her current salary of $78,000 — $78 million would be about $20 million more than the highest-paid NBA player (Stephen Curry) this past season. Merely multiplying Clark's salary by 10x would be a leap under the WNBA's current salary structure. As was the case for Jordan when he stepped away from the game from 1993-95, Clark's absence — she missed five games over nearly three weeks with a quad injury — demonstrated how much she moves the needle. Two games on NBA TV had viewership drop by 40 percent compared to the Fever's first game on the network with Clark, though one still ranked in the channel's top-10 broadcasts. Although the Fever's game against the Chicago Sky reached 1.9 million viewers – the third most for a WNBA game on CBS — it was 30 percent fewer than watched the Sky-Fever game with Clark on ABC. The resale tickets for the game at the United Center also dropped about 70 percent after Clark's injury was announced, yet it still drew a Sky-record 19,496 fans. Advertisement 'She's going to be massively underpaid because it's not just what she's doing for her team but what she's doing for the other teams,' said Michael Leeds, a professor of economics at Temple University. Said the aforementioned industry source: 'She's making opposing owners seven figures when she shows up.' Clark entered the WNBA at an opportune time after growing her brand at Iowa, profiting off modern name, image and likeness rules and more television exposure for women's basketball players. The WNBA was already entering a substantial growth period, too, with league revenues doubling from 2019 to 2023, per Bloomberg. Yet, while Clark was jet fuel for the moment, the structures of the sport have stopped her from capturing her full worth. The WNBA's ownership model prevents players from receiving the bulk of its revenue. The NBA owned half of the league before 2022, when the WNBA sold 16 percent of its equity in a $75 million capital raise, a transaction that diluted the then-12 teams' total stake to 42 percent. NBA players take home 50 percent of basketball-related income, while the other half goes to the owners. In the WNBA, the league's owners don't even control 50 percent of the league, so a theoretical 50/50 split of total revenue would leave only 21 percent of the pie each to both the owners and the players. Beyond the realm of the hypothetical, no such splitting provision even exists in the current collective bargaining agreement; player salaries presently account for less than 10 percent of revenue. 'The WNBA is hamstrung by this, because if they tell the amazing story of what's going on in their league in terms of revenue, then they have to explain why the players are paid so badly,' said David Berri, a professor of economics at Southern Utah University. The CBA has a mechanism for revenue sharing if certain targets are reached. However, that agreement was created in 2020, when the league played a pandemic-impacted bubble season and essentially made no money. Because the revenue targets are cumulative, the WNBA hasn't caught up despite recent rapid growth, preventing all players from benefiting from financial gains. Advertisement The league also has a hard cap per team that limits individual salaries. The cap is currently $1.5 million, a total spread among 11 to 12 players per team. To increase the cap, and thus increase salaries, the league needs a massive growth in revenue. And the biggest driver of revenue across sports leagues is media rights. Last year, the league signed the richest media rights deal in women's sports league history. The value of what commissioner Cathy Engelbert has called the WNBA's 'tranche 1' deals — around $200 million annually over 11 years with Disney/ESPN, NBC and Amazon as of 2026 — jumped from $33 million with ESPN in 2025. (The total value of the W's current media rights with all of its partners is about $50 million this year.) But the uptick in value was agreed upon before Clark-mania officially began in the WNBA. The NBA and WNBA did not announce the terms of the new media rights deal until July 2024, but a source with knowledge of the agreement, who was not authorized to discuss the deal publicly, said the details were agreed upon before the start of the 2024 WNBA season, and before the announcement of the Toronto and Portland expansion teams. At a congressional hearing this May, Bill Koenig, the NBA's president of global content and media distribution, said the WNBA was mindful of the league's growth trajectory and put in provisions to reflect the league's upside. The WNBA can still sell additional media rights as part of its 'tranche 2' deals; it currently has deals with ION and CBS, for instance, and just extended its agreement with ION in June. There is also a revenue-sharing provision in the 'tranche 1' agreement, in which the WNBA would benefit incrementally if advertising revenue exceeds a certain level. Perhaps most importantly to the league's future revenue is an opportunity for the WNBA to initiate a 'look-in' provision in three years to increase the value of the agreement. But experts said it's still unclear how much renegotiated media rights deals would be worth. Leeds, the Temple professor, said that it is difficult to ascribe broadcast rights effects directly to a single player, because the negotiation involves a broader, multi-year package. Furthermore, while the WNBA's national regular-season ratings are comparable to those of major men's leagues and set records (or near records) on an almost weekly basis, WNBA playoff ratings still lag. 'Media value is not something that is particularly precise and calibrated to exactly what happens week-to-week, month-to-month or even year-to-year,' said Ed Desser, a longtime NBA employer who negotiated the WNBA's first media contract and is now an industry consultant. Advertisement Though the incoming media rights deal is a historic sum for the WNBA, the total figure is still only about five times the current deal and future increases via the look-in are unlikely to be massive. Even if all of the TV revenue were funneled into player salaries, the individual max would still be in the realm of $1.25 million. Thus, this source of revenue would still fall short of capturing the additional value Clark has brought the league. Cramer, the Harvard economist, hasn't modeled how much of the WNBA's economic growth can be attributed to Clark, but he said, 'Consider if there was an increase in the league over a 10-year horizon in the order of billions. If she's 25 percent of that, then that's how I would say she could have brought $750 million to the league.' He said she's made an even more significant impact on the economics of women's sports more broadly. 'I think her overall value to women's sports starts with a B,' Cramer said. 'It's in the billions for sure.' His insight draws on the significant increases in media rights and franchise valuations over the last few years, as Clark rose to prominence in college and now stars in the pros. All of this projection comes before Clark has played in an Olympics, made a deep postseason run, or even finished a season with a winning record. Clark will almost assuredly never receive in salary what she is worth to the WNBA. In that regard, she's a lot like Jordan, and other all-time greats across sports. Yet, no matter the challenge in quantifying her value, her impact is palpable. As Kosner, the former ESPN executive, put it, 'I think every commissioner in every sport wishes he or she had a Caitlin Clark.' (Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; Visual data: Thomas Oide / The Athletic; Photo of Caitlin Clark:)
Associated Press
an hour ago
- Associated Press
D. Wayne Lukas revolutionized horse racing: An Appreciation
For over 50 years, D. Wayne Lukas set the standard in horse racing. And the sport followed suit. Trainers wanted to be like Wayne. Owners wanted him handling their horses. He died Saturday at his home in Louisville, Kentucky, his family announced through Churchill Downs on Sunday. He was 89. Lukas' death, mourned across the racing industry, came just days after his family said he would no longer train because of health issues. He was hospitalized with a severe MRSA infection and declined an aggressive treatment plan, instead choosing to return home. His stable of horses was transferred to his longtime assistant Sebastian Nicholl. Lukas' 4,953rd and final thoroughbred winner was Tour Player at Churchill Downs on June 12. His final Kentucky Derby runner finished 16th in May. There are generations who've never known horse racing without Lukas in it. Much of what American trainers do today is based on his playbook: identifying and buying the best horses at the sales, shipping them to race at tracks nationwide, aiming to compete yearly in what he called 'the big arena' -- the Triple Crown series and the Breeders' Cup world championships. 'The horses were everything to Wayne. They were his life,' one-time rival trainer and longtime friend Bob Baffert posted on X. 'From the way he worked them, how he cared for them, and how he maintained his shed row as meticulously as he did his horses. No detail was too small. Many of us got our graduate degrees in training by studying how Wayne did it. Behind his famous shades, he was a tremendous horseman, probably the greatest who ever lived.' Born and raised on a small farm in Antigo, Wisconsin, Lukas grew up around horses. He first coached high school basketball in his home state, later serving as an assistant at the University of Wisconsin. In 1968, Lukas moved to California and began training quarter horses. He found success, overseeing 24 world champions in 10 years. He then switched to thoroughbreds, saddling his first winner at Santa Anita in 1977. He became the first trainer to earn over $100 million in purse money, and 14 times he led the nation in money won. 'A lot of nice records fell and a lot of good things happened,' he said in 2022. Lukas had an edge to him in his heyday, cutting a suave figure at the track in his expensive suits, his eyes hidden behind aviator sunglasses. He ran his operation like a corporate CEO, overseeing some 400 horses around the country. There was no time to rest on his laurels. He was never content to appreciate what he had achieved. Instead, he was always looking for the next great horse, the next big stakes win. His statistics are overwhelming: — 15 Triple Crown race victories, including six in a row — 20 Breeders' Cup victories — three Horse of the Year champions — four Eclipse Awards as the nation's outstanding trainer — first trainer to be inducted in both the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame and the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame Nearly until his final days, Lukas would be aboard his stable pony, Bucky, in the predawn darkness, leading his horses to the track and supervising their workouts. Out of the saddle, he was easily spotted in his white Stetson, using a cane in one of his few concessions to age. Some years ago, though, the glory days seemed lost and never to return. A handful of Lukas' deep-pocketed owners died within a short time of each other, leaving his stock of horseflesh depleted. He wasn't a serious factor in the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont. In 2020, he recovered from a case of COVID-19. Still, he kept getting up at 3:30 a.m., spending winters in Arkansas and springs in Kentucky. He returned to the 2-year-old sales, scouting promising horses that he could develop his way. He also trained for MyRacehorse, a syndicate selling shares in horses for as little as $100. Lukas marveled at the logjam of happy owners in the winner's circle. The tide soon turned. In 2022, Lukas earned his record-tying fifth victory in the Kentucky Oaks and first since 1990. He became the oldest trainer to win a Triple Crown race when Seize the Grey won the 2024 Preakness and followed up with a victory in the $1 million Pennsylvania Derby. On that May afternoon in Baltimore, there was an impromptu surge of adulation for Lukas from his rivals. In a business rife with jealousy, the losers stepped up to congratulate the wily veteran. Lukas lived to a ripe old age, long enough to experience the reverence he had earned and so richly deserved. 'No one was bigger to this Game Except for Wayne,' retired Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens wrote on X. Over his last 25 years, Lukas had segued into racing's elder stateman, unafraid to express his opinions about an industry struggling to stay afloat within its ranks and with the public. 'With age and experience you inherit a certain amount of responsibility to maybe carry the game a little further,' he told The Associated Press in 2015. Lukas had been there, done that and knew the feeling of winning. He wanted to share it with his newest owners as well as total strangers. He would often pull youngsters out of the stands and usher them to the winner's circle to pose for the photo. The man nicknamed 'Coach' took fatherly pride in his string of former assistants who went on to successful careers of their own, most notably Todd Pletcher, a two-time Kentucky Derby winner. 'Wayne had a special aura about him,' Baffert posted on X. 'He had a knack for making others feel seen and valued. He was uniquely charming and an eternal optimist. In one of my last conversations with him, we talked about the importance of looking at the glass half full and continuing to compete in what he called the big arena. To his final days, he was a relentless competitor. He set out with ambitious goals and achieved them all.' ___ AP horse racing:
