Phillies' New Hitting Coach Gets Blunt on Trea Turner

The Philadelphia Phillies decided to stick with Don Mattingly as manager (after Alex Cora spurned them, of course), but they did make some changes elsewhere.

Among those alterations was firing hitting coach Kevin Long and bringing in Pete Fatse — a Cora disciple — to try and bolster a Phillies offense that ranked toward the bottom of baseball in many major statistical categories this past season.

On that subject, Fatse has already identified one of his primary projects: shortstop Trea Turner.

Turner signed an 11-year, $300 million contract with Philadelphia in December 2022 and enjoyed three solid seasons to begin his Phillies tenure. In fact, he batted .304 to capture the NL batting title in 2025.

This past year, however, was an unmitigated disaster for the three-time All-Star.

Turner slashed .242/.297/.378 with 19 home runs and 58 RBI over 700 plate appearances and only had two months with an OPS north of .700 or better. He also posted two months of a sub-.600 OPS.

Can Fatse get the 33-year-old turned around? The new coach mentioned that Turner was one of his first contacts upon being installed, and he is expected to hold a personal meeting with the veteran in November.

“Trea is a tremendous, dynamic talent,” Fatse said, via NBC Sports Philadelphia. “Getting to understand his priorities and building off his strengths is important to me.”

It's hard to really see where Turner went off the rails in 2026.

Outside of his BABIP, which dipped to .284, his peripherals were relatively similar to his career norms. So perhaps good coaching can get Turner back on track.

Turner has seven years remaining on the contract he signed, so the Phillies are desperate to help him rediscover his stroke.

Not only that, but the former first-round pick was horrendous in the field this past season, posting minus-17 defensive runs saved and minus-8 outs above average.

New infield coach Carlos Mendoza, the former New York Mets manager, is tasked with helping Turner in that area, and if Turner continues to struggle, team president Dave Dombrowski has made it clear he would consider moving him off of shortstop.

Fatse's area of expertise, though, is hitting, and if he can at least get Turner back to being serviceable at the dish, Turner's poor defense would not be quite as glaring.

We'll see if Fatse can get Turner somewhat back to normalcy ... unless this really is the new norm for the aging infielder.