The Nationals announced that Henry Blanco is now the club’s bench coach. Blanco was already on the staff as a catching and strategy coach. Also, Bob Henley has been added to the staff with the title of major league field coordinator.
The moves are domino effects of the club’s recent shakeup. On the weekend, they fired president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo and manager Dave Martinez. Yesterday, bench coach Miguel Cairo was given the position of interim manager, which created a bench coach vacancy. In essence, the firing of Martinez has led to Cairo taking his seat, Blanco bumping up to Cairo’s spot and now Henley slotting in to even things out and presumably take up some of Blanco’s previous duties.
Blanco, 53, played in the majors from 1997 to 2013. He immediately pivoted to coaching once his playing days were done, joining the Diamondbacks staff in 2014. He then spent three seasons on the Cubs’ staff as quality assurance coach, winning a World Series ring in 2016. Going into 2018, he joined Washington’s staff as bullpen coach, winning another ring in 2019. He pivoted to catching and strategy coach ahead of the 2022 season.
Henley, 52, got a brief major league run as a player. He appeared in 41 games for the 1998 Expos, the franchise which would later become the Nationals. He joined Montreal’s minor league ranks as a coach back in 2003 and stayed with the organization when they relocated to Washington in 2005. He worked his way up to the big league staff for the 2014 season. He stayed on the staff through various managerial changes but his last season was 2021. He stayed in the org but was moved to a player development role for the 2022 season.
Photo courtesy of Sam Navarro, Imagn Images