The New York Mets are set to make Hensley Meulens Carlos Beltran‘s right-hand man.
According to Jon Heyman of MLB Network, the Mets are going to hire Hensley Meulens to fill their open bench coach position.
Hensley Bam Bam Meulens is the choice to be Mets next bench coach. #Bam
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) November 25, 2019
Meulens has spent his entire MLB coaching career under Bruce Bochy with the San Francisco Giants. He won three World Series with the Giants as their hitting coach. He took over as the team’s bench coach in 2018. When Bochy retired at the end of the 2019 season Meulens was not asked to return.
Rumors quickly swirled that Meulens was planning on joining the Miami Marlins’ staff. However, that didn’t work out as Meulens wanted to pursue bench coach options. He is now set to be the New York Mets’ bench coach for the 2020 season.
Meulens is praised for his ability to communicate with his players. He is the only coach in the MLB who can speak five languages, he speaks Spanish, English, Dutch, Japanese, and Papiamento.
Meulens has limited managerial experience. He was the manager of the Netherlands during the 2013 and 2017 World Baseball Classics but has no managerial experience in full-season baseball.
Meulens worked with Carlos Beltran in 2011 during Beltran’s short time with the Giants. That familiarity likely played a large role in his being hired for this role. Meulens was the only bench coach option that was interviewed that had ever worked with Beltran at the MLB level.
Communication and comfort with you’re bench coach are key for a manager. The bench coach and the manager a tandem and work off of each other. They need to be in sync and they need to work well together.
A lot has been made about Beltran needing a bench coach who can teach him how to manage or be a coach. Meulens won’t be that guy, and he doesn’t need to be. What really matters is the dynamic that he and Beltran share.
Considering that Beltran and Meulens have a prior working relationship one should expect that they have that familiarity. Hopefully, this is a fruitful partnership for the Mets that leads this team into the future.