Yankees hire Hensley Meulens: 9 things to know about new coach

The Yankees have hired Hensley Meulens as their assistant hitting coach.
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Late Monday, the Yankees announced that their month-long search for their last coaching spot had ended.

Hensley Meulens will serve as their third hitting coach, alongside primary instructor Dillon Lawson and assistant Casey Dykes.

Here’s what you need to know about Muelens.

Say his name right: It’s pronounced MEW-lens

From: Willemstad, Curacao

Age: 54

Say what? He speaks four languages — English, Spanish, Dutch, Papiamento and Japanese

Good knight: Queen Beatrix — the queen of the Netherlands — knighted him in 2012 for his work helping The Netherlands win the 2011 Baseball World Cup.

An accomplished coaching career: As a coach on the Giants’ staff, he helped them to World Series titles in 2010, 2012 and 2014. Meulens was San Francisco’s hitting coach for eight years and its bench coach for two. In 2020, he was Luis Rojas’ bench coach with the Mets, but they replaced him in 2021 and he spent the season out of the dugout. Meulens also managed Team Netherlands in the 2013 and 2017 World Baseball Classic and served as a coach for them during the 2006 and 2009 WBC. He also coached for Team Netherlands at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.

Big-league experience: Meulens, manager Aaron Boone and bullpen coach Mike Harkey are the only Yankees coaches with major-league experience. Meulens played in 182 big-league games over seven seasons. He also played in Japan, Korea and Mexico. In 1990, he was named the International League MVP while playing for the Yankees’ Triple-A Columbus affiliate.

Nearly the manager: Boone beat Meulens — and other candidates — for the Yankees’ managerial job in 2017. In fact, it was reported at the time that Meulens was the runner-up to Boone, who will enter his fifth season at the helm.

Takes over for Chavez: The Yankees had announced Eric Chavez as their third hitting coach, but in January, he left for a promotion. The Mets made him their primary hitting coach.

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Brendan Kuty may be reached at bkuty@njadvancemedia.com.

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