Yankees hire Hensley Meulens as assistant hitting coach
Hensley Meulens poses for a photo at Clover Park on February 20, 2020 in Port St. Lucie, Florida. Credit: Getty Images/Mark Brown
The Yankees passed on hiring Hensley Meulens in 2017, instead tabbing Aaron Boone to replace Joe Girardi as manager.
On Monday they announced the hiring of Meulens, at one point considered a favorite to take over for Girardi, to serve on Boone’s staff as assistant hitting coach.
Meulens, 54, has three World Series rings to his name. He was Bruce Bochy’s hitting coach with the Giants from 2010-17 (the Giants won titles in 2010, 2012 and 2014). Meulens, a close friend and confidant of the former Giants manager — Bochy long pushed for him to get a chance to manage in the majors — was the Giants' bench coach in 2018 and 2019 before serving as the bench coach for the Mets in 2020.
Meulens had a .221/.290/.344 slash line with 12 homers and 46 RBIs in 159 games for the Yankees from 1989-93.
Meulens, a native of Willemstad, Curacao, speaks five languages — English, Spanish, Dutch, Japanese and Papiamento. Though he doesn’t have big-league managing experience, Meulens, who entered professional baseball in October 1985 when the Yankees signed him as an undrafted free agent, managed Team Netherlands in the World Baseball Classic in 2013 and 2017.
Among the major-leaguers Meulens managed with those clubs were Xander Bogaerts, Jonathan Schoop, Kenley Jansen, former Yankees shortstop Didi Gregorius and Andrelton Simmons, a possible free-agent target for the Yankees once the MLB-imposed lockout comes to an end.
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
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