July 1, 2025; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Phillies hitting coach Kevin Long talks with shortstop Trea Turner during batting practice at Citizens Bank Park. (Credit: Grace Del Pizzo/On Pattison)
PHILADELPHIA — Rob Thomson declared in early June that he believed Kevin Long was "the best hitting coach in baseball."
Agree or disagree, the Phillies showed with their actions this past week that they really believe that, because it would have been a popular decision with a large percentage of the fanbase to throw him overboard after another early postseason exit where the bats came up short.
Rob Thomson: “I think Kevin is the best hitting coach in baseball.”
(Via @TimKellySports) pic.twitter.com/ttUXAt50Ag
Rather than dismissing Long, though, the Phillies decided this week to add a spot to their coaching staff, shifting Mike Calitri from bench coach to the newly-created major league field coordinator position. They'll look outside the organization for a new bench coach.
In his year-end address Thursday, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski explained why the Phillies have decided to retain Long for a fifth season as hitting coach.
"Kevin Long's an exceptionally good hitting coach," Dombrowski stated. "And with [assistant hitting coaches] Dustin Lind and Rafael Pena, I think we have a good hitting program. It can always get better, right? Nobody's perfect, by any means. But I think that they're very good. We're among the league leaders in so many different categories. We had the league-leader in home runs, RBIs and batting average, and we were pretty high up there in runs scored. I think we improved our plate discipline this year to some extent, didn't chase quite as much."
Kevin Long and Kyle Schwarber embrace after advancing to the NLCS. pic.twitter.com/rcaL5A7w4x
Kyle Schwarber was the National League-leader in home runs (56) and posted the top mark in all of baseball in term of RBIs (132).
Schwarber initially worked with Long on the Washington Nationals in 2021, and has credited him with helping to turn his career around after being non-tendered by the Chicago Cubs. Schwarber explained to On Pattison in June why he's such a fan of Long.
"I think the biggest thing is us all as hitters, we're all different," Schwarber said. "Everyone's got different qualities. Everyone has different things that make them click. And the toughest job is to be able to know all those different qualities of what makes your hitter good and what makes them tick and what makes them go. He does such a great job."
Clearly, the Phillies like Long, who has previously won the World Series as the hitting coach for the New York Yankees (2009) and Nationals (2019). In fact, every team that Long has been the hitting coach for — also including the New York Mets (2015) and Phillies (2022) — has reached the World Series under his tutelage.
But don't underestimate how important Long's continued presence in Philadelphia could be as the Phillies try to re-sign Schwarber this offseason. Money will ultimately do the talking, but Long could help the Phillies to break any ties in free agency. Had the Phillies dismissed Long, he could have been scooped up — be it as a hitting coach, or some sort of advisor — by a team that plans to pursue Schwarber this offseason, such as the Cincinnati Reds or Chicago Cubs.
Meanwhile, Trea Turner won the NL batting title in 2025. Granted, .304 is a lower mark than you typically see for a batting champion, but the Phillies asked Turner to focus less on power and more on getting on base and wreaking havoc with his speed prior to the season. He did that, and one would think the hitting coach deserves some credit for helping him make that adjustment.
Turner — who was on the 2019 Nationals team that won a World Series with Long as their hitting coach — also lauded him in a conversation with On Pattison during the 2025 season.
"I mean the work ethic is obviously No. 1," Turner said of Long. "He wants us to do well. He's in it with us. I think that's the biggest thing is when we're not doing good, he feels like he's not doing good. I think that's No. 1.
"And No. 2 is just the positive energy," Turner continued. "I feel like when everyone wants to be super negative, including ourselves, going to the cage and working with somebody that's positive and wanting to find answers in a good way, I think is really big. And he's probably the best at those two things, being in it with you and then trying to find answers to the problems."
To be fair, this might have been a different conversation if the season had ended in mid-June, when the Phillies' offense felt overly reliant on the trio of Schwarber, Turner and Bryce Harper. But a mid-season adjustment to Bryson Stott's batting stance allowed him to hit .294 after the All-Star Break, a 60-point increase from the .234 mark that he posted in the first half. Brandon Marsh dug himself out of an early hole to hit .280 with a .785 OPS.
There are areas where the Phillies still need work. According to Statcast, the Phillies posted a 30.3% chase rate during the regular season, a mark that only the Colorado Rockies and Houston Astros were worse in terms of. It was the exact same chase rate that the Phillies finished the 2024 season with. It didn't feel like the Phillies chased as much in the postseason as they did in 2023 and 2024, but ultimately there still wasn't a parade at the end of the playoffs.
The calculation from the Phillies, though, might be that the way to improve chase rate is to change the personnel. Nick Castellanos — who posted a career-high 40.6% rate of pitches swung at outside of the strike zone — almost certainly won't be back in 2026. He alone had the sixth-worst O-swing percentage in baseball this season.
Dave Dombrowski non-committal on Nick Castellanos' future with Phillies
— Tim Kelly (@timkellysports.bsky.social) October 16, 2025 at 1:32 PM
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Los Angeles sweeping the Milwaukee Brewers in the NLCS to advance to the World Series for the second year in a row doesn't excuse the Phillies for falling short of their goals, but the Phillies scored 15 runs in four games against the Dodgers. The Brewers scored four runs in four games against the Dodgers. The Phillies did catch the Dodgers at the exact time their pitching clicked. That doesn't mean that the Phillies should run it back in 2026, but a recognition of how good the Dodgers are right now probably contributed to Dombrowski and company feeling they didn't need to make a change at hitting coach.
"That was a really good pitching staff that we faced in the postseason," Dombrowski said. "I don't know what you do to hit 100 mph on a consistent basis. ... You're always hoping a guy throws a bad game against you. We also thought that maybe a couple of their pitchers, like [Roki] Sasaki at the end, who really had struggles at the minor-league level. But all of a sudden he's throwing 100 [mph] with a split that's outstanding. I can't put that on hitting coaches.
"You just hope that at some point, one of your hitters, or a couple of your hitters get hot against that type of pitcher. But that's hard. It's really, really hard," Dombrowski added. "That was really, really good pitching. I can't put that on Kevin and the staff, they're really good."