Several New York-based media are reporting that the former Yankee outfielder and current bench coach of the San Francisco Giants Hensley Meulens will be interviewed for the position of manager of the New York Yankees.
The 50-year old Curaçao native will be one of a long list of candidates that apply to fill the void that was left after the Yankees decided not to extend the contract of Joe Girardi.
Meulens was signed by the Yankees as an amateur free agent in 1985 and played 159 games for them from 1989 to 1993 while slashing .221/.290/.344. After spending the biggest part of the 1993 season with AAA Columbus, Meulens tried his luck in Japan, where he joined the Chiba Lotte Marines for the 1994 season. In 1995 and 1996 he played for the Yakult Swallows with whom he won the 1995 Nippon Series.
In 1997, Meulens returned to the MLB as he played 16 games for the Montreal Expos and spent the biggest part of that season with the Expos’ AAA franchise in Ottawa. In 1998 Meulens split the season between Calgary, Tucson (both AAA) and Arizona. After that season he played several years in the Atlantic League, Mexico, and Korea.
In the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia, Meulens joined the Dutch national team. In that year (former) pros were allowed to participate in the Olympic baseball tournament for the first time. In that year, the Dutch beat Cuba for the first time in an important tournament.
In 2009, Meulens joined the coaching staff of the Dutch national team. In 2013 he became the manager of that team as he guided them to a semi-final spot in San Francisco. That semi-final was lost to the later champion, the Dominican Republic. This year, Meulens guided a star loaded Dutch team, with MLB players like Didi Gregorius, Xander Bogaerts, Jonathan Schoop, Andrelton Simmons and Jurickson Profar to another semi-final. Once again the team faltered, this time vs Puerto Ricans, who would be beaten by the United States in the championship game.
For eight seasons, Meulens was hitting coach for the San Francisco Giants. After the 2017 season, the Giants shook up their coaching staff and Meulens was promoted as he was named bench coach of manager Bruce Bochy.
Meulens has experience as a manager, knows the game and most of all, he speaks five different languages, including Spanish, Dutch, Japanese and Papiamento, so he can talk to every player on the Yankee squad.
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