Phillies hire new hitting coach roughly 4 months after Joe Girardi challenged him to a fight

The Philadelphia Phillies have found their new hitting coach. News broke a few weeks ago stating that the Phillies would be moving on from hitting coach Joe Dillon and infield coach Juan Castro. Now, the organization has hired Kevin Long from the Washington Nationals to be their new hitting coach.

As their record shows, the Phillies were the definition of mediocre. Joe Dillion joined the Phillies from the Nationals in 2018. Here’s how the Phillies finished from the plate this year.

• .240 Batting Average (18th)
• 4.53 Runs per Game (13th)
• .726 OPS (14th)
• .248 RISP (19th)

As for Juan Castro, well, the majority of Phillies fans should already know this. The infield defense was by far one of the worst, if not they worst in the entire MLB with a -48 Run Differential (28th).

Kevin Long will be reunited with Joe Girardi and Rob Thomson, who he coached with in New York. Long will obviously be reunited with Bryce Harper as well, who he coached in Washington. 

During the height of the sticky substance scandal in the middle of the MLB season, Joe Girardi actually challenged Kevin Long to a fight. Girardi was ejected from that game after asking the umpires to check Max Scherzer for substances after a 1-2-3 fifth inning. 

Joe Girardi challenged his former Yankees assistant coach Kevin Long to a fight in June

Now they’re reunited in Philadelphia as Girardi is once again hiring Long to be his hitting coach pic.twitter.com/siu0CwQvB9

— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) October 11, 2021

Girardi was basically saying “C’mon K-Long, cmon, let’s go! You want to go K-Long? C’mon!”, challenging him to a fight. Should make for an awkward first conversation down at Citizens Bank Park.