Of all the well-paid individuals who gather in the Phillies dugout every game day, there is one who probably isn’t getting paid enough.

While his exact salary isn’t known, and the Phillies recognized his value by making the need to extend his contract through 2025. One of their top offseason priorities, hitting coach Kevin Long, probably deserves even more.

He is widely known around baseball as one of the top hitting coaches in the game, and so far, in 2023, he may be the Phillies MVP – Most Valuable Person – through the first 22 games.

A quick look around the Phillies lineup will bring evidence of that.

  • Bryson Stott – Subtle changes to his batting stance – standing taller in the box and lowering his hands a few inches – has allowed him to make solid contact on fastballs up in the zone, an Achilles’ heel for Stott in 2022. It has turned him into a leadoff hitting machine who has a hit in every game he’s played this season except for one.
  • Brandon Marsh – A simplified swing that doesn’t have him moving around so much as the pitch is coming in allows him to drive the ball with his legs and be quicker with his hands and wrists. It’s allowed him to become an extra base machine, and Marsh leads the majors in triples (4), slugging percentage (.719), OPS (1.157) and OPS+ (212 – the league average is 100).
  • Alec Bohm – Adding on some muscle to the upper half of his frame has allowed Bohm, who already had an advanced approach at the plate for such a young player, to add more slug to his game. No longer just a tough out because he puts the ball in play, and isn’t afraid to go the opposite way, Bohm now has added consistent power to his game.

But the two best examples of Long’s brilliance in the art of hitting may be the guys who were directly responsible for the Phillies 4-3 win over the Rockies Saturday.


We’ve already done a deep dive into the work Long did with Nick Castellanos a bit here on Crossing Broad. First during Spring Training, and then again during the opening home series of the season against Cincinnati.

So, there’s no reason to rehash all that, especially because Castellanos doubled down on a lot of what he said in both of those stories following Saturday’s game.

But the one thing that had not shown itself for Castellanos in his Long-inspired revamped approach to hitting was power. Yes, he was walking more. Yes he is still leading the majors in doubles, adding his 10th of the season on Saturday. But entering the game Castellanos had not homered in a game that mattered since August 27, 2022.

That was 10 games to close out the 2022 regular season, 17 playoff games in the fall, and 21 regular season games to start 2023. Going 48 games without a home run for a guy who is batting cleanup in your lineup has to be a cause for concern, right?

I asked manager Rob Thomson if, in fact, he had any concern before Saturday’s game.

“No,” Topper said. “It’ll come. It’ll come.”

There were other questions about Castellanos and the overall lack of power on the Phillies so far this season. Thomson was steadfast there too, but it’s almost like Castellanos was listening in to this conversation because it didn’t take long for him to make his manager turn in to a peerless prognosticator:

That was the second pitch he saw Saturday and it put the Phillies up 1-0. Later in the game with the score tied 3-3 Castellanos came up again and, well…

It was his first multi-homer game as a Phillie. The last one came in September 2021 when he was with the Reds. Castellanos also doubled, making it a three-hit game. Its still early, but he’s slashing .310/.383/.500 for an .883 OPS.

“I trust in the numbers and his approach is completely different than last year,” Thomson said after the game. “He’s staying back on balls and giving him a chance to see the ball, use his legs, and use all his strength. It’s good.”

Then there’s Long’s current project – Cristian Pache.

Pache has never hit at the major league level. A one-time can’t miss prospect for the Atlanta Braves, Pache was being compared to Andruw Jones. He can play the outfield like his Atlanta forefather but the bat left a lot to be desired. After a few short chances with Atlanta, he was shipped off to Oakland where, seemingly impossible, he became an even worse hitter.

The Phillies were able to get him in a trade for a song, and his first two games showed more of the same that everyone saw in Atlanta and Oakland.

The Phillies then announced that although he was still on the roster he wasn’t going to play for a few games – unless needed for an emergency – while he went into the lab with Long to figure out what was wrong.

In his last 15 plate appearances Pache is hitting .429 (6-for-14 with a sacrifice bunt). He had two hits Saturday including this one:

There is still work to be done with Pache. He doesn’t have a hit yet against a right-handed pitcher, but he’s hitting .400 this season against lefties, giving the Phillies a viable option in the outfield against a Southpaw.

I waited around for a bit after the game to talk to Pache to try and get a sense of what has been different here with Long that he wasn’t able to unlock in either Atlanta or Oakland, and through a translator Pache gave a very interesting answer:

“I’m full of confidence right now,” Pache said. “[Long] really knows what he’s doing. Whatever he tells me to do, I do. I am understanding hitting better. Not only is he a great coach, but I have an interpreter here to help me out. It’s helpful when you have a whole team working together for you.

“He explains it by taking his time. He makes sure you understand and that hitting is 90 percent mental and 10 percent physical and that your progressing with each session every day.”

While it’s not surprising that Oakland wouldn’t have an interpreter sitting in the hitting lab with a hitting coach, considering the mess that team is currently, it does surprise me a little that Atlanta wouldn’t have that available to Pache.

And who knows. Maybe there’s something a little lost in translation, but what’s not lost in translation is the language of hitting science being taught by Long and the Phillies are all the better for it.

RANGER EXPLAINER

The Phillies continue to get encouraging news on Ranger Suarez as he continues to rehab from his forearm stiffness/elbow soreness injury suffered during the World Baseball Classic last month.

So, assuming Suarez wakes up Sunday and feels good, the rehab assignment can begin as early as next weekend.

Thomson did say 3-4 starts would be needed to get stretched out to a 90-pitch or better plateau. He said right now Suarez can only throw about 40-45 pitches.

Let’s look at the calendar.

Let’s say Suarez makes his first rehab start Friday. That means the second would come on May 2nd and a third on May 7th. If that’s enough he could rejoin the Phillies in time for their trip to Colorado and then San Francisco that begins on May 12th. If he would need a fourth rehab start then you can push it back a week further and he can rejoin the team back in Philadelphia when they return from that trip.

This would allow him to get in two starts at the major league level beginning around May 19th, one against the Chicago Cubs and one against Arizona, before he would have to be ready for the big road trip to face Atlanta and the New York Mets at the end of May.

Bellatti shelved

In the least surprising injury of the early season, reliever Andrew Bellatti hit the injured list Saturday with right triceps tendonitis. The Phillies needed to make a move to officially recall Christopher Sanchez to make a spot start Saturday and this was it.

Thomson said the injury is not a bad one and one that the team feels will be brief, but the reason it shouldn’t surprise is that Bellatti had been called on to pitch in 10 of the first 20 games of the season. That’s a lot in today’s game.

After a great start to the season where he didn’t allow a run and only gave up two hits and two walks in his first six outings out of the bullpen, Bellatti started to see a little less life on his fastball and lost command of his slider.

It resulted in six runs allowed on nine hits and four walks in his last four appearances.

Assuming the injury is as minor as Thomson described the Phillies would still be wise to be more judicious with his usage when he returns because when he’s on he’s a reliable middle relief arm in the bullpen.

As a result, the Phillies will operate with one fewer relief arm on Saturday as technically Sanchez is the sixth starter this week (Both Zach Wheeler and Bailey Falter pitched Tuesday, Taijuan Walker pitched Wednesday, Matt Strahm Thursday and Aaron Nola Friday). This made it extra important for Nola to go seven innings in the 4-3 win Friday. You always want to get length out of your starting pitcher, but knowing you were down an arm in the bullpen for at least two games made it even more paramount.