Report: Phillies to hire longtime Joe Girardi assistant as hitting coach

Prior to the final game of the regular season, the Phillies fired hitting coach Joe Dillon and infield coach Juan Castro. Joe Girardi, according to reports, has filled at least one of the these vacancies.

Nationals hitting coach Kevin Long is set to join Girardi’s staff, per a report from The Athletic. Long, 54, spent seven seasons working under Girardi as his hitting coach with the New York Yankees from 2008 to 2014. Long will once again serve as a hitting coach under Girardi, this time in Philadelphia.

Long joined the Nationals staff as the hitting coach in 2018. Dillon was Long’s assistant in Washington for two seasons until Girardi hired him to join the Phillies staff in 2020.

It seems as though Girardi and Long have patched things up after engaging in a heated in-game argument in June. During a game against the Nationals, Girardi called for the umpire to check then Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer for foreign substances. Scherzer and the Nationals dugout took exception to that. Long yelled over to Girardi and the Phillies skipper left the dugout to call-out Long.

Scherzer gets checked for sticky stuff and chaos ensues, a breakdown pic.twitter.com/Roh6wbCHLF

— Jomboy (@Jomboy_) June 23, 2021

Long is free to hire his own assistant as the Phillies also gave Dillon’s assistant Pedro Guerrero permission to seek employment elsewhere, per Scott Lauber of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

We’ll have more on this story as more details become available.

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