SAN DIEGO — As former Giants hitting and bench coach Hensley Meulens strode through the lobby of the winter meetings hotel Tuesday morning, he was reluctant to talk about not getting a second interview for the chance to replace Bruce Bochy as manager.

“I’m a Met now,” Meulens said, smiling. “We had a good run, and I will always cherish the 11 years I spent in the organization. But decisions are made that we weren’t part of. We were lucky to have other jobs now to continue our careers.”

By “we,” he meant himself and Ron Wotus, who also had a one-and-done interview for manager with president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi before he was asked to remain as third-base coach under Gabe Kapler.

Meulens has managed internationally, and the Giants were grooming him to get a big-league job by elevating him from hitting coach to bench coach. It’s remarkable, then, that he did not get an interview from any of the other seven big-league clubs that changed managers. He has interviewed for seven jobs without success.

Meulens’ theory? His age. He is 52.

“It’s changing a little bit all over,” he said. “The tendencies are to go younger and to hire guys who have connections with the younger presidents on the teams. It’s kind of pushing us out a little bit. Luckily, I still had an opportunity with the Mets with Carlos (Beltran) as a rookie manager. I’ll be able to help him a lot.”

Meulens was on the Giants’ staff during Beltran’s short stay in 2011. They became tight and remained friends.

Two of the eight new major-league managers are older than Meulens. The Angels’ Joe Maddon is 65 and the Phillies’ Joe Girardi is 55. But both have track records that include a World Series championship.

The other six new hires are younger than Meulens, with San Diego’s Jayce Tingler the youngest at 39.

Asked whether he was optimistic or pessimistic when he interviewed with Zaidi, Meulens said, “It doesn’t matter how I feel about it. You can say the same thing about the other six interviews I’ve done. You go in thinking you have a shot, but when you don’t have a shot, you’ve got to move on. That’s what happened.”

Briefly: Zaidi said he met with Madison Bumgarner’s representatives Tuesday but would not comment further on what now looks like a long-shot effort to keep him. ... The Dodgers have elevated former Giants infielder Emmanuel Burriss to hitting coach for their Triple-A team and hired another ex-Giant, Brett Pill, to be their Double-A hitting coach. ... Former Giants amateur scouting director John Barr, who remains in the organization, will be honored Wednesday as one of baseball’s top scouts.

Henry Schulman is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer.