The Miami Marlins are back to hiring female pioneers for important positions, now with their farm director.
On Tuesday, ESPN's Jeff Passan announced that the Marlins hired Rachel Balkovec to be their farm director — making Balkovec the first woman to assume such a role in professional baseball.
The Miami Marlins are hiring Rachel Balkovec as their farm director, sources tell ESPN. She comes from the New York Yankees, where she spent the last two years as a manager in the minor leagues, the first female to do so.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) January 9, 2024
Balkovec's Farm Director role is generally considered to be one of the most taxing jobs within a major league baseball organization (aside from actually playing, that is), considering that the job requires overseeing more than 150 players and dozens of managers and coaches; all of whom are located in various places across the country.
Demanding job description aside, there's no doubt that Balkovec is not only qualified, but well-equipped to excel in her Farm Director role.
Balkovec managed the Tampa Tarpons (the New York Yankees' Single-A affiliate team) for the past two seasons, which made her the first woman in professional baseball history to manage a minor-league team.
Prior to that time in Tampa, Balkovec — who played Division 1 college softball as a catcher, at both Creighton University and the University of New Mexico — was a minor league hitting coach for the Yankees. Before that, Balkovec was hired by the Houston Astros to be their Latin American strength and conditioning coordinator (a role she learned Spanish for), and has also worked as the strength and conditioning coach for the Johnson City Cardinals, a minor league squad in the St. Louis Cardinals' organization. Balkovec was the first woman to hold all of these roles within Major League Baseball.
Balkovec is the most recent coaching hire by Peter Bendix, the Marlins' new general manager who replaced Kim Ng, another female pioneer within baseball, who left her job with the Marlins last year because she didn't agree with team owner Bruce Sherman's plan to reshape Miami's Baseball Operations department.
Given that the Marlins — who made the 2023 playoffs after finishing the regular season with a 84-78 record, but were then swept by the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League Wild Card Round — have struggled to develop Major League caliber position players in recent years, Balkovec clearly has her work cut out for her.
Regardless of how her tenure with Miami pans out, Balkovec, Ng, and current San Francisco Giants assistant coach Alyssa Nakken are redefining gender roles within professional baseball and blazing a trail for future females to follow.
Bravo, Balkovec.
