Bam Bam to talk Yank job; Belt interested
ORLANDO — Add a new name to the Yankees’ managerial search: Bam Bam Meulens.
And add another name to the list of those who would like to be considered for the job: Carlos Beltran.
Hensley ‘Bam Bam’ Meulens will interview for the vacancy, the Daily News confirmed. He is considered an intriguing sleeper candidate given his Yankee ties and strong communication skills. The 50-year-old native of Curacao can speak five languages, including Spanish, Dutch, Papiamento and Japanese.
The highly-thought of Meulens was just promoted to bench coach of the Giants from hitting coach, and it is believed that he is being groomed to eventually follow three-time World Series champion Bruce Bochy as manager of the San Francisco franchise.
Meulens came up through the Bombers’ farm system and played in New York from 1989-93. He managed the Netherlands at the World Baseball Classic, but doesn’t have any MLB managing experience. Still, he checks a lot of boxes GM Brian Cashman is looking for in replacing Joe Girardi.
They reached out to the A’s about Bob Melvin, who played in nine games for the Yankees in 1994 and has an apartment in SoHo but were not granted permission to interview the Oakland skipper, per Ken Rosenthal.
The Yankees also reached out to Brad Ausmus, according to Jon Heyman of Fanragsports.com, but he’d like to take a year off from managing after being the Tigers skipper.
Beltran, 40, after announcing his retirement on Monday, would not rule out pursuing the job.
“I don’t know what they’re looking for. Experience as a manager, I don’t have that,” Beltran, a nine-time All-Star, 2017 World Series champion and possible future Hall of Famer, told MLB.com.
“But I have the passion for the game, I have the knowledge of being able to play the game for a long time. I get along with the players, with my teammates; I’ve always taken that to heart, trying to impact my teammates in a positive way.
“I would not discount anything; you’re talking about the New York Yankees. You’re not just talking about any team in baseball. Not taking anything away from any other organization, but the Yankees are a team that anyone would love to put on that uniform and manage that ballclub.”
Beltran played for the Yankees in parts of three seasons, from 2014-16, serving as a valuable leader and mentor for the younger players.
“I’ve had a number of dialogues with him,” Cashman said. “Carlos, and I, I’d consider friendly. I think we have a personal and a professional relationship. I know he has aspirations to manage. I’m not going to talk about who our potential candidates are until we present those candidates to the media in conference calls after the interviews go through.”
The Bombers will also interview Aaron Boone, who Cashman is intrigued by despite the fact the ex-Bomber has had no previous managerial experience. They’ve already interviewed Rob Thomson and Eric Wedge for their vacancy, which is the only managerial opening in all of baseball.
“I would say it’s too early to say,” Cashman said when asked how the process is going. “We went through this about 10 years ago (with Joe Girardi) and I think we have a new and improved model, not in terms of candidates but in terms of process. Hopefully, it’ll lead to a good result.”
The Bombers could wind up interviewing 18-20 candidates in a long and drawn out process that could last until right before the Winter Meetings in December.
“We’ll see,” Cashman responded when asked about the process of paring down candidates. “I have a list. We’ll see how far I get into it.”
Interviews are scheduled to resume Thursday, once the GM meetings have concluded.
Hal Steinbrenner will eventually be more involved in the process. Right now, the owner has been getting regular updates from Cashman during the search.