Previous Position: San Francisco Giants’ Bench Coach
Age: 6/23/1967 (52)
MLB Coaching Experience: Giants Hitting Coach (2010-2017), Giants Bench Coach (2018-2019) Netherlands Manager (2013, 2017)
Hensley Meulens has spent his entire major league coaching career with the Giants. He’s won three world series with the team as the team’s hitting coach. His coaching career began with the Baltimore Orioles’ organization in 2003. He was on the coaching staff of the Bluefield Orioles from 2003-2004. In 2005 Meulens left the Orioles’ organization to join the Pittsburgh Pirate’s organization.
He was named the hitting coach of the Pirates AAA team the Indianapolis Indians. Meulens would hold that position for four seasons. Meulens was also a coach in the Arizona Fall League for the Peoria Saguaros in 2005, and the Honolulu Sharks in the Hawaiian Winter League in 2006.
It was in 2009 that Meulens found his way to the Giants organization. He was hired as the hitting coach of the giants AAA affiliate the Fresno Grizzlies. After just one year with the Grizzlies Meulens joined the Giants replacing Carney Lansford.
Under Meulens the Giants went from 26th in MLB in runs per game in 2009 to 16th in runs per game in 2010. The Giants went on to win the World Series that year. Under Meulens Buster Posey won Rookie of the Year and MVP. However, the Giants as a whole under Meulens never had a top-10 offense in baseball. Their average runs per game ranking in the league was 19th in baseball.
Despite that mediocre offensive performance, Meulens became bench coach in 2018. He replaced longtime Giants bench coach Ron Wotus who moved to third base coach. In his two years as bench coach the Giants’ offense suffered. They ranked 29th in the league in 2018, and last season they ranked 28th in offense.
When former Giants manager Bruce Bochy retired at the end of the 2019 season the Giants allowed Meulens to search for new opportunities. Rumors quickly sprouted that he would be joining the Marlins staff in 2019. Meulens has a job with the Marlins, but they’ve left it open for him to take another job if e chooses. He is now a candidate for the New York Mets bench coach position.
In 2013 after winning a second World Series with the giants Meulens got his chance on the national stage. He was named the manager of the Netherlands for the World Baseball Classic. Under Meulens, the Netherlands were runner-up in 2013 losing in the finals to the Dominican Republic. An impressive feat considering the team featured few MLB regulars on the roster. The most notable players were Andruw Jones, Xander Bogaerts, and Andrelton Simmons. Meulens reprised his role as manager of the Netherlands in 2017. This time the Netherlands fell to Puerto Rico in semi-finals in 11 innings.
Meulens is the only player or coach in MLB history from Curaco. He’s also the only coach in baseball that can speak five languages. He speaks Spanish, Dutch, Japanese, English, and Papiamento.
What They Say
The Giants players quotes from an article in the Mercury News on their struggles in 2017 are an excellent example of the culture of helped build in San Francisco. The personal accountability that the players show is impressive. It’s also likely a reason that despite his team finishing 29th in runs per game that year he still got promoted to bench coach.
Buster Posey: “It’s on us to go out and perform. We’ve all been doing this for awhile and there has to be accountability on our part. I think we understand that, and that’s why nobody is blaming Bam Bam.”
Brandon Belt: “It’s hard to sit there and blame it on a coach. We’re big league hitters. We know how to hit. At some point we have to take it upon ourselves and do it ourselves. I know it’s easy to put blame on people like that, but it’s up to us. That’s all there is to it.”
Posey Also offered his support for Meulens as a coach: “I don’t think you’ll find anybody in this clubhouse who has something bad to say about Bam Bam. I’ve been with him for a long time now and I always try to compliment him on how positive he is. We’ve been through ups and downs, won three championships with him, going through a pretty bad down period right now, but he’s still the same guy. That is not easy to do. I think he’s gained all of our respect because of that.”
Recommendation
Hensley Meulens seems like an odd choice for Carlos Beltran‘s right-hand man based on his resume. He didn’t succeed as a hitting coach, nor did the Giants perform when he was the bench coach. He also lacks previous MLB managerial experience. Something that both Jerry Narron and Fredi Gonzalez have.
However, Meulens has one thing that no other candidate does, and that’s a personal relationship with Beltran. Beltran played under Meulens during the second half of the 2011 season. He excelled during his time with Giants slashing .323/.369/.551. Beltran received MVP votes for his performance that season.
It’s possible that Beltran feels comfortable with Meulens and has a good working relationship with him. Communication is key in the manager bench coach relationship. If Beltran and Meulens have an established relationship that they believe would benefit the team then Meulens makes a lot of sense.
