Dave Dombrowski has twice tried to hire Alex Cora to manage the Philadelphia Phillies since the latter’s firing by the Red Sox in late April, but to no avail.
The former Red Sox president of baseball operations and current Phillies front office head has, however, successfully landed one of the coaches fired alongside Cora.
Pete Fatse, who first joined the Red Sox as assistant hitting coach during the 2019-20 offseason and was promoted to hitting coach two years later, will replace Kevin Long as the Phillies’ hitting coach, The Athletic’s Charlotte Varnes reported Monday evening.
Fatse’s New England roots run deep as a native of Holyoke and graduate of Minnechaug Regional High School. He played college baseball at the University of Connecticut, where he was Huskies teammates with several future major leaguers, including fellow Massachusetts native John Andreoli, star outfielder George Springer and longtime Red Sox reliever Matt Barnes.
The Milwaukee Brewers drafted Fatse in the 24th round of the 2009 MLB draft after his junior year, but he never reached the majors. After two years in their farm system and two playing in independent leagues, Fatse retired from playing and turned his focus to the Advanced Performance Academy in Palmer, which he founded in 2010. He joined the Minnesota Twins as minor league hitting coordinator in January 2019 before signing on with the Red Sox the following fall.
This will be Fatse’s second job since leaving the Red Sox. The Tampa Bay Rays brought him on as a hitting consultant for their baseball research and development department two months after the firings.
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