Phillies Announce New Hitting Coach To Replace Kevin Long

The Philadelphia Phillies have already had a busy offseason, checking several items off their to-do list.

They wasted very little time announcing that Don Mattingly was going to take over as the full-time manager, and moved quickly to make changes to the staff under him. After he was named interim manager in place of the fired Rob Thomson, he inherited the coaching staff as well.

With some different philosophies and thoughts, it made sense that he would bring in some new faces on the staff. That process started with hitting coach Kevin Long and infield coach Bobby Dickerson both being removed.

And now, that hitting coach spot vacancy has reportedly been filled. According to Charlotte Varnes of The Athletic (subscription required), with contributions from Matt Gelb and Katie Woo, the Phillies are hiring Peter Fatse to replace Long.

Peter Fatse hired by Phillies to be hitting coach

Fatse has been a hitting consultant with the American League Pennant-winning Tampa Bay Rays’ research and development group for the last few months. They hired him after he was part of the mass firing that the Boston Red Sox underwent after an unproductive first month on the field.

Four other coaches and manager Alex Cora were all fired at that point. Philadelphia reportedly pursued Cora after that, and again when they were eliminated from the playoffs, but he turned them down both times.

Now, they are bringing his former hitting coach aboard and hoping that he can help turn things around.

Fatse started his tenure with the Red Sox after the 2019 season, when he was hired as an assistant hitting coach. He was promoted to hitting coach in 2022 and held that position through this past April when the team got off to an underwhelming start.

For a majority of his tenure on the staff, Boston had one of the most prolific offenses in the MLB. As shared by Varnes, from 2022 through 2025, the Red Sox were fourth in baseball in batting average and 11th in on-base percentage.

In 2026, the Phillies’ offense bottomed out under Long. Several veterans had the least productive seasons of their careers, and something had to change despite some Philadelphia stars having a strong relationship with the hitting coach.

Before getting hired by the Phillies, Fatse actually interviewed with one of their rivals, the New York Mets, for their hitting coach vacancy. Their former manager, Carlos Mendoza, was also hired by Philadelphia as their new infield coach.

Both newcomers are going to be pushed to work closely with the analytics department, devising game plans. Philadelphia has a robust analytics team, with at least 40 people on staff, but President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski believes it can be integrated more into the game plan.