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Colorado Rockies Re-Hire Legendary Manager as Hitting Coach

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Eric W. Bolin | Last updated Apr 17, 2025 4:17 PM ET

The Colorado Rockies have been so bad for so long they have become something of a laughingstock among Major League Baseball teams. They most recently made the postseason in 2018. And they went in 2017, too. But in the 33 years of the franchise's existence, they've made it past the divisional round a grand total of one time.

This year, the Rockies aren't close. They won't be close, barring a miracle run even more impressive than when they won 14 out of their last 15 to force a play-in game against the San Diego Padres.

As of midday Thursday, Colorado held a 3-15 record, 11 1/2 games out of first place in the National League West and 8 1/2 games out of fourth in the West. Things were bad.

So, the organization made a change. The team replaced hitting coach Hensley Meulens with someone the Rockies are hope can spark things. After all, he did his first time in Colorado.

Former Rockies manager and, before that, hitting coach Clint Hurdle was hired to replace Meulens on Thursday.

He managed Colorado from 2002-09 and led the Rockies to the World Series in 2007. He served as the team's hitting coach under managers Don Baylor, Jim Leyland and Buddy Bell from 1997-2002 and was the organizaton's minor-league hitting coach from 1994-96. Hurdle had been serving as a special assistant to Rockies general manager Bill Schmidt when he was re-hired to take an old place back in the dugout.

The Rockies entered Thursday with more strikeouts than any team in the National League (195) and the league's fourth-lowest batting average (.220).

Meulens had been the Rockies hitting coach since 2022 and previously served as the San Francisco Giants hitting coach for their three World Series titles in the 2010s.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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