According to Charlotte Varnes of The Athletic, the Phillies are hiring former Boston Red Sox coach Peter Fatse as their hitting coach.
There was no news regarding what will happen with assistants Edwar Gonzalez and Rafael Pena but there will be a new top guy in Fatse.
Fatse started his coaching career as a hitting coordinator with the Minnesota Twins in 2019 and then went to Boston right after the season. He was eventually promoted to be the Red Sox hitting coach before the 2022 season and was in that
role until a coaching staff clean out in the April of 2026 which started with Alex Cora.
From 2022-2025, the Red Sox ranked 14th in wRC+ although did not always have the best offensive players at his disposal. Tyler O’Neill put together the 2nd best season of his career under Fatse in 2023 with a .847 OPS, eventually earning a three-year deal with the Baltimore Orioles and has not been able to recapture the same form. Jarren Duran did his best hitting during that span and regressed hard in 2026. Ceddanne Rafaela has grown into a very capable offensive player.
There have also been players who did not meet expectations. Kristian Campbell has not panned out as a top prospect for the Sox. Marcello Mayer was another one who was eventually traded at the deadline for Erik Miller and a prospect. Whether the successes or failures of certain Red Sox hitters deserve to be on Peter Fatse is not clear and never will be but it’s worth pointing out both.
One other key aspect of this hiring that is impossible to ignore is that he is tied with Alex Cora. Cora rejected the Phillies’ offer in April and turned them down again earlier in October but his presence will loom large on the franchise until he takes another job. Especially since he hasn’t ruled out managing again in the future and the Phillies only gave Don Mattingly a two-year contract.
This may be all a coincidence but they just hired someone with a real connection to Alex Cora and who was part of the Red Sox staff cleaning in April. This storyline is just not going away.
