Rockies hire final two members to coaching staff

The Rockies announced the final two members of their coaching staff, with Hensley Meulens coming to Colorado as the new hitting coach and Warren Schaeffer hired as the new third base/infield coach.

Meulens is a newcomer to the somewhat infamously insular Rockies organization, though his season as a player with the 1998 Diamondbacks and his long stint on the Giants’ coaching staff makes him a familiar face in the NL West. After a lengthy playing career in the majors, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, and independent ball, Meulens worked in the minor leagues as a coach with the Orioles, Pirates, and Giants before being promoted to San Francisco’s MLB staff prior to the 2010 season. Meulens worked as a hitting coach and bench coach over his decade on the Giants’ staff, earning three World Series rings along the way.

Since leaving the Giants, Meulens was the Mets’ bench coach in 2020 and then the Yankees’ assistant hitting coach in 2022. The 55-year-old Meulens will now be tasked with replacing Dave Magadan as the Rockies’ hitting coach, and reinvigorating a Colorado lineup that (despite the thin air of Coors Field) has been average at best over the last few seasons. In particular, Meulens will be the latest coach to challenge the problem of how to stabilize the wide home/away splits that many Rockies players have, as they adjust to playing in and out of the thin air.

The Rockies re-assigned former third base/infield coach Stu Cole to a new role in the organization, opening the door for Schaeffer’s first job on a big league staff. Schaeffer was a 38th-round pick for the Rockies in the 2007 draft, and after six seasons as a minor league player, he became a coach and manager in Colorado’s farm system. Over the last three seasons, Schaeffer has managed the Rockies’ Triple-A affiliate, and also worked as a third base coach and infield instructor in the same job.