Rockies fire hitting coach, look to Rocktober leader for help

The Colorado Rockies offense hasn’t done enough bam bam early this season, and they’ve fired hitting coach Hensley Meulens because of it — in his spot will be former club manager Clint Hurdle to the gig.

Hurdle, the leader of the Rockies for eight seasons, was at the helm when the team won their lone pennant in 2007. His time on the job ended in 2009, when he was fired mid-season. Hurdle led the Pirates for nine seasons until 2019.  He has been working for the Rockies for the last few years as a special assistant to the general manager.

Now he returns to a role that he had all the way back in 1997.

The reason for the change is obvious with the Rockies off to an MLB-worst 3-15 start. The team has the worst offense by runs scored in baseball, the highest strikeout percentage and nearly the fewest home runs, lowest batting average and worst walk rate.  The club’s slash line of .220/.285/.344 equals a 65 wRC+, also worst in the majors.

“Bam Bam” Meulens was hired ahead of the 2023 season; his time as the hitting coach has coincided with the worst stretch of baseball in club history. The Rockies lost 100 games each of the last two seasons for the first time, now they look back to the best era of baseball at 20th and Blake, going back to Hurdle. He managed the team to a 534-625 record after working as the hitting coach for years. He led the 2007 team to 90 wins, one of just a few times the Rockeis have scored that many wins in a season.

Hurdle, 67, played in the majors from 1977 to 1987. He first joined the Rockies organization as a coach in 1994 and eventually got the big league skipper job in 2002.

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