MÉRIDA (DA) — Hensley Meulens has been named manager of the Leones de Yucatán, putting one of Curaçao’s most accomplished baseball figures in charge of the Mexican League club.
Meulens, born June 23, 1967, in Willemstad, Curaçao, was the first player from Curaçao to debut in Major League Baseball when he reached the majors in 1989 with the New York Yankees.
A former outfielder, Meulens played parts of seven MLB seasons with the Yankees, Montreal Expos and Arizona Diamondbacks. He appeared in 182 major league games, batting .220 with 15 home runs and 53 RBIs.
His playing career also included stops in Japan with the Chiba Lotte Marines and Yakult Swallows, and in South Korea with the SK Wyverns.
Meulens moved into coaching in 2003 in the Baltimore Orioles’ minor league system. He later worked in the Pittsburgh Pirates’ minor league affiliates before joining the San Francisco Giants organization, where he became part of a championship era.
With San Francisco, Meulens served as hitting coach for eight seasons and later as bench coach. He was on the Giants’ coaching staff for World Series titles in 2010, 2012 and 2014.
His major league coaching résumé also includes bench coach with the New York Mets, assistant hitting coach with the Yankees and hitting coach with the Colorado Rockies.
Internationally, Meulens managed the Netherlands national team and guided the Dutch side to the semifinals of the World Baseball Classic in 2013 and 2017.
The Leones also added Calvin Maduro as bench coach, while David Seguí and Melvin Mora joined the staff as hitting coaches.
Maduro, born Sept. 5, 1974, in Santa Cruz, Aruba, pitched in the majors from 1996 to 2002 with the Philadelphia Phillies and Baltimore Orioles. After his playing career, he worked in player development, pitching instruction and scouting, including roles with the Orioles and Minnesota Twins systems.
Maduro also pitched for the Kingdom of the Netherlands at the 2004 Athens Olympics and served as pitching coach for Águilas del Zulia in Venezuela in 2020.
Seguí brings 15 seasons of MLB experience to the Leones staff. He played 1,456 games with the Orioles, Mets, Expos, Seattle Mariners, Toronto Blue Jays, Texas Rangers and Cleveland Indians, finishing with 1,412 hits, 139 home runs, 684 RBIs and a .291 batting average.
Mora, a former Venezuelan infielder, played 13 MLB seasons from 1999 to 2011 with the Mets, Orioles, Rockies and Diamondbacks. He finished with 1,503 hits, 171 home runs and 754 RBIs in 1,556 games, and was a two-time All-Star in 2003 and 2005.
Mora’s best season came in 2004 with Baltimore, when he hit .340 with 27 home runs and 104 RBIs and won the American League Silver Slugger Award. He was inducted into the Venezuelan Baseball Hall of Fame in 2022.
The moves give Yucatán a staff led by Meulens’ major league, international and championship experience, with Maduro, Seguí and Mora adding deep Caribbean and MLB backgrounds around him.