Philadelphia will not retain hitting coach Kevin Long and infield coach Bobby Dickerson as Don Mattingly begins reshaping the staff.
The Phillies made the decision on October 14, the same day they removed Mattingly's interim label and signed him to a two-year contract for the 2027 and 2028 seasons.
The club had a Thursday morning press conference scheduled but had not officially confirmed the coaching moves.
Offensive and Infield Decline
Long and Dickerson had both remained on staff through multiple leadership changes, from Joe Girardi to Rob Thomson and then from Thomson to Mattingly in late April.
Both coaches had been in their current Philadelphia roles since 2022.
The club's offensive production fell sharply in 2026 after ranking among the majors' better lineups through 2025.
The Phillies dropped from a . 759 OPS and .
258 batting average in 2025 to a . 707 OPS and .
240 average this season.
Their . 240/.
312/. 395 line produced a 92 wRC+, ahead of only Cincinnati and Colorado.
Philadelphia still reached the postseason for a fifth straight year, but the lineup scored just eight runs in a three-game Wild Card Series loss to Atlanta.
Among 11 players with at least 130 plate appearances, only Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber and Bryson Stott posted a wRC+ above 90.
Long's tenure included stronger results before the 2026 decline.
The Phillies posted a . 253/.
317/. 422 line in 2022 and reached the World Series, then combined for a .
257/. 327/.
431 mark from 2023 through 2025 while making the playoffs each year.
Dickerson also oversaw meaningful defensive gains before the setback in 2026.
Trea Turner improved from minus-8 Outs Above Average across his first two Phillies seasons to 17 OAA in 2025, placing him in the 99th percentile among major-league fielders.
Alec Bohm became a serviceable third baseman and Bryson Stott emerged as a dependable infielder.
That progress reversed this season.
The Phillies' infield shifted from plus-20 Outs Above Average in 2025 to minus-11 in 2026, a 31-out swing based on Statcast's range metric.
The Good Phight, citing the broader arc of both coaches' tenures, said the organization appeared to seek a different voice after repeated offensive struggles in the postseason and declining performance from several key players.
More details were expected from president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski at the team's scheduled appearance Thursday.
