The Phillies are not bringing back Kevin Long to the staff, ending the run of the hitting coach as the club starts a broader round of coaching changes. Bobby Dickerson is also out, leaving the team to sort out how it wants to teach its lineup and infield next.
It is a move that lands now because the Phillies have spent several seasons watching their offense disappear in the playoffs, even as the team believed it had upgraded the roster around the edges. Kevin Long worked with hitters who were part of those postseason runs, and the decision to move on from him and Dickerson suggests the club is looking for a different answer after repeated October shutdowns.
The case for change is not built on one failure alone. During Long and Dickerson’s tenure, the lineup and infield did improve. Alec Bohm and Bryson Stott did not, in the view reflected here, reach the fullest version of what their draft status once promised, but they did move in different directions under that staff. Bohm went from being near atrocious at third base to at least slightly below average there, while Stott became one of the better, more versatile glovemen in the game.
That is what makes the decision harder to read as a simple firing. The Phillies saw real gains while Long and Dickerson were working, yet the offense still vanished when the games mattered most, and there were also enough noticeable declines from Trea Turner and Bryce Harper at the position Dickerson is responsible for that the club had reason to rethink its instruction. Justin Crawford’s development has not exactly screamed success either, which only sharpens the pressure on a staff change.
There is also a possible outline for what comes next, even if the club has not laid out the full replacement plan. The suggestion of moving Trea Turner to the outfield points to a search for different construction as much as different coaching, which matters because the Phillies are not simply changing voices; they are changing the way they may want the roster to function. Dave Dombrowski is expected to speak tomorrow, and that should be the first real explanation for how far the reshaping goes and which jobs, if any, are already spoken for.
