Kevin Long
When the Phillies’ bats were clicking during the first half of the season, no one appeared to be worried about offensive production for the most part. However, when several players, including stars Bryce Harper and Trea Turner, endured some prominent slumps down the stretch, the growing problem was never truly rectified in the end. In doing so, the Phillies posted just an underwhelming 33-33 record following the All-Star Break as they trudged into the postseason.
With their struggles at the plate, the onus was on hitting coach Kevin Long to find a remedy for the situation prior to the playoffs, before the games started to really count. Opposing teams began to exploit the Phillies’ weakness of their propensity to chase, as many of the players failed to adjust as a result.
In particular, they had huge problems with non-fastballs, leading to the fourth-highest chase rate of 35 percent in 2024. As highlighted by our very own Michael Fisher, the problem was present during last year’s playoffs and also became evident once again during the last month of the 2024 season.
Either they didn’t work on the issue, or Long wasn’t successful in getting the Phillies to change their plate approach. As a result, they ended up striking out a whopping 38 times over four games in the NLDS against the Mets. That in itself led to many rallies being snuffed out as the Phillies couldn’t get anything going for a potential comeback in most cases.
Hopefully, it will be an issue that will eventually be resolved heading into 2025. But for the 2024 year, it pretty much led to their undoing in the latter half of the season.