Longtime SF Giants Coach Hensley Meulens Fired By Mets

Longtime SF Giants coach Hensley Meulens was the New York Mets bench coach in 2020, but will not be returning to the team.

New York Mets bench coach Hensley Meulens will not be returning to manager Luis Rojas’s staff, according to a report by Bob Nightengale that was later confirmed by Tim Britton of The Athletic. Meulens spent the majority of his coaching career with the SF Giants but moved on following the hiring of Gabe Kapler.

Meulens was brought onto Bochy’s staff in San Francisco prior to the 2010 season to serve as the hitting coach. He would serve in that position for the next eight seasons during their three World Series championship runs. Prior to 2018, Meulens was promoted to bench coach and worked directly alongside Bochy during his final two seasons in the organization.

After being past over for the Giants managerial position, Meulens was offered a spot on Don Mattingly’s Miami Marlins staff but decided to accept a position with the Mets instead. While the move seems like a surprise after just one season, but it’s worth noting that Rojas did not hire Meulens. Meulens was hired to bring his experience to Carlos Beltran in his first season as a manager. However, after Beltran’s role in the Houston Astros cheating scandal was revealed, he was fired before ever coaching a game.

Rojas was hired at that point, but after the coaching staff had already been constructed with Meulens. Needless to say, it’s understandable that Rojas would want to reshape the staff in his image, but Meulens is the type of overqualified coach that one would think managers would want to keep on staff.

While Meulens was a finalist for the New York Yankees managerial job in 2017 and has interviewed for countless other openings, he has yet to receive an opportunity. He remains one of the most obvious examples of the added obstacles for Black managers in MLB.

As a player, Meulens experienced the pressures of a top prospect with the New York Yankees in the late eighties. He also bounced between the minors, majors, Korea, and Japan throughout the nineties. Fluent in five languages, perhaps no one is better equipped to communicate with a clubhouse full of people from around the globe.

Now that longtime SF Giants coach Hensley Meulens will not be returning to the New York Mets, he will be looking for another opportunity. One of the most qualified managerial candidates in baseball, he will likely be a great fit wherever he ends up.