The New York Mets seem to have zeroed in on former Giants bench coach Hensley Meulens for the same role.
According to Andy Martino of SNY, Hensley Meulens is a strong front-runner to fill the Mets bench coach opening.
Mets aren’t confirming any coaching hires or talking about the process but am hearing Hensley Meulens a strong frontrunner for bench coach. Don’t expect announcements for a bit still. @Chica_Deportes has meulens hired
— Andy Martino (@martinonyc) November 23, 2019
Hensley Meulens has spent his entire major league coaching career with the San Francisco Giants. He took over as the team’s hitting coach in 2010 and held that position through 2017. He was the Giants hitting coach during Mets’ manager Carlos Beltran‘s short Giants’ tenure in 2011. Prior to the 2018 season, Meulens was given a promotion to bench coach and kept the job for the last two seasons. He was not asked to return for 2020.
Meulens does have some managerial experience. He was the manager of the Netherlands for the World Baseball Classic in both 2013 and 2017. Despite having just five major league players on his roster in 2013, Meulens squad reached the finals but lost to the Dominican Republic. His team showed similar grit in 2017 when they lost to Puerto Rico in 11 innings in the semi-finals.
Meulens is the first player or coach from the small nation of Curacao. He’s also the only coach in the majors who speaks five languages, English, Spanish, Dutch, Japanese and Papiamento. He is often praised for his ability to communicate with every player he works with.
Meulens is an interesting choice for Beltran’s right hand man. He has no prior major league managerial experience, nor does he have experience with the managing a bullpen or double switching. The things that many NL managers often find difficult to manage, especially first time managers.
However, Meulens does have prior experience with Beltran and did work under future Hall-of-Fame manager Bruce Bochy for a decade. He won three World Series with the Giants as the team’s hitting coach.
What this role really comes down to is Beltran’s connection to the candidate. He needs a lieutenant who he connects with and feels comfortable with in every facet of the game. The manager and bench coach are a pair and need to work as such. If Beltran feels that connection with Meulens that’s all that really matters.