Rachel Balkovec: A Comprehensive Profile

Rachel Balkovec shattered a glass ceiling when she became the first woman to manage in affiliated baseball for the Tampa Tarpons. (Photo by Mark LoMoglio/ Tampa Tarpons)

 

Rachel Balkovec’s résumé includes several firsts: the first woman to serve as a strength and conditioning coordinator in affiliated baseball; the first woman to do so for a major-league team in Latin American baseball; the first woman hitting coach and All-Star Futures Game coach; and the first woman to manage an affiliated team. Today, she is the director of player development for the Miami Marlins.

Still in her 30s, Balkovec has accomplished all this on a foundation of family influences, mentors along the way, and the pivotal experiences that ignited her passion for baseball. She’s overcome barriers in a male-dominated sport, earning praise for her resilience and expertise.

CORNHUSKER STATE BEGINNINGS

Born on July 5, 1987, in Omaha, Nebraska, the second of three sisters, Rachel Balkovec was raised by her parents, Jim and Bonnie, in a 1,500-square-foot house with dark shutters and a basketball hoop. Jim, a former customer service manager at American Airlines, would wake up at 3 o’clock every morning to be at the airport by 5 for the start of his shift. He only missed three days of work in his 35-year career. After Jim would return home, Bonnie, a former bookkeeper, would head out the door on her way to night classes. Bonnie would become the first person in her immediate family to earn a college diploma.1

Described by Rachel as “practical Midwesterner people,” Jim and Bonnie managed to fund a private education for all three of their girls, but designer clothes were out of the question. Rachel and her sisters would wear thrift-store outfits and regular tennis shoes.2 Jim and Bonnie ingrained in their daughters the principle that achieving their goals required a dedicated effort and constant hard work. Balkovec has echoed that sentiment over the years, saying that all her achievements can be traced back to the unwavering support and life lessons she received from her parents. She once told a room full of reporters, “My father and mother, they deserve an award. They literally raised three girls to be absolute hellions.”3

During a telephone interview I conducted with Balkovec in the spring of 2022 for the cover story of Inside Pitch Magazine, she emphasized the lasting influence her parents have had on her:

My parents grew up relatively poor and were both the first to go to college in their families. They set my sisters and I up for success by making us each get jobs when we were 14 (Rachel’s first job was at 14 working at a movie theater serving popcorn). We had to make our own money, pay for our own material possessions, and earn everything we received. They also made it known that at the end of the day, whatever we wanted in life was entirely up to us and the work ethic we put forth. This is a lesson, a mindset, that I carry with me every day, whether it is my job, my personal life, or even my own ambitions. Anything is possible with work.4

Stephanie Balkovec, Rachel’s older sister, told Fox Sports, “They wanted to make it so that their kids could be completely independent in the world—to be able to do literally anything and not need them [to do it].” Stephanie and Rachel had to purchase their cars from their parents with their own money and pay for the insurance.5

Balkovec also credits her resilient demeanor and “thick skin” to the influence of Jim and Bonnie. “I choose to make decisions that thicken my skin,” she told me in 2020, “but the only reason I have that decision-making process is because of what my parents taught me really, really young, and they set me up to make those decisions to go into tough situations and thrive in those situations.”

All three Balkovec sisters attended Skutt Catholic High School in Omaha, where Rachel played basketball, soccer, and softball.6 Katie Pope, who met Balkovec in grade school, recounted in 2022 how being friends with Rachel always felt like having your own personal coach: “She saw more potential in me than I saw in myself. She motivated me, and if I’ve ever been doubtful of anything—career, boys—she was always a very strong sounding board. She’d whip me into shape and pick me back up.”7

Erin Hartigan, studio anchor for Bally Sports Southwest, met Balkovec in eighth grade. According to Hartigan, their relationship centered around holding one another accountable and pushing one another to be better. “You want to be on her team because she’s going to win,” said Hartigan, who was a softball teammate at Skutt Catholic. “She wants to win, but she also knows, ‘I’m going to kick your you-know-what.’”8

Hartigan remembers that even as a young child, it was clear that Balkovec was unique: “Even when she was in the eighth grade, she had this intensity. She was built differently. I knew then she was destined for big things. I don’t know if I anticipated her becoming the first female manager in baseball, but I’d tell you today I am not surprised.”9

As a high school athlete, Balkovec exhibited qualities of assertiveness and concentration, maintaining elevated standards for her softball teammates while setting even loftier goals for herself. According to coach Keith Engelkamp, “She was always driven and never, ever complained. She would go 100 percent until the coach said it was time to leave.”10 Recognizing her take-charge mindset, Engelkamp thought Balkovec would do well as a catcher, allowing her more control and more chances to engage with the ball.11

But Balkovec also had a bit of a temper and was known to throw her equipment. One game, Joe Negrete, an assistant coach for Skutt Catholic, berated her for throwing her helmet after she made an out. He yelled, “You don’t ever throw a helmet in my dugout ever again!” and removed Balkovec from the game. She never threw another helmet after that. Years later, Hartigan would describe Engelkamp, Negrete, and Larry King, another assistant coach at Skutt Catholic, as “pivotal” to the long-term development of both herself and Balkovec. The coaching staff would help the girls fine-tune their playing skills while teaching them to build trust, manage their passion and work ethic, and “slow down.”12

Roughly 15 years after graduating from Skutt Catholic, Balkovec was honored with the school’s 2019–20 Alumna of the Year award.13

COLLEGE YEARS

Balkovec began her college career at Creighton University, about 20 minutes from her home in Omaha. But her time there was brief. She developed a case of the yips—an abrupt and unexplainable loss of throwing accuracy. A transfer to the University of New Mexico wasn’t a cure, though, and after appearing in 13 games as a catcher in 2007 and two more in 2008, Balkovec arrived at the realization that she could be more valuable to the team off the field. She redirected her work ethic toward inspiring and motivating her teammates in the weight room.14

“I was an average softball player who really found solace and an ideal means to contribute in the weight room,” she told me for Inside Pitch Magazine. “That was my place to shine, work hard, and earn the respect of my teammates and coaches, which ultimately turned into a passion and later a career.” Balkovec attributes her eventual ascent in coaching to the strength coaches she worked for in college. These coaches demonstrated “what it meant to be a true coach, as opposed to just blowing a whistle and counting reps,” she said.15

Her tenure at the University of New Mexico introduced her to an industry that had previously been outside her scope: affiliated professional baseball.

Baseball was never on my radar until I went to the University of New Mexico and several of my friends on the baseball team got drafted. As I kept in touch with them, I began to understand the onion which is professional baseball. So, it wasn’t the sport itself that fueled my desire to work in professional baseball, it was actually the journey of the minor league baseball player: coming to terms with an organization, extended bus rides, limited access to weight rooms, pregame hot dogs, and many other everyday struggles that accompany minor leaguers. Pro baseball is such a unique business to me; it’s a never-ending jigsaw puzzle to solve.16

After graduating with a degree in exercise science in 2009, Balkovec relocated to Arizona to participate in an internship with API (Athletes’ Performance, now known as EXOS), then enrolled as a graduate student at Louisiana State University in 2010. She studied sport administration and was a graduate assistant strength and conditioning coach.17 In a 2022 interview with the LSU Media Center, Balkovec reminisced about her time in Baton Rouge.

“LSU was an absolutely critical point in my career when I learned about elite level standards in championship programs,” she said. “The coaches, players, and professors all played a huge role in developing a foundation on which to build a career in professional sports.”18 After graduation, she embarked on a journey to achieve what seemed nearly impossible at the time: securing a coaching position in affiliated professional baseball as a woman.19

WELCOME TO PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL—IS IT “RACHEL” OR “RAE?”

That journey began with an internship with the Johnson City (Tennessee) Cardinals, a St. Louis affiliate in the rookie-level Appalachian League, in 2012.

The differences between college and minor-league baseball were stark. “I went from 110% intensity to, like, not so intense, and very quiet [stadiums] and no fans,” she told NPR’s Only a Game. “And I would say 95% of the players I was working with did not speak English and don’t have any idea what SEC football or baseball or softball means. And they don’t care.”

After the season, Balkovec was named the 2012 Appalachian League Strength Coach of the Year.20 However, despite her summer success, she did not receive a job offer from the Cardinals or any other affiliated professional organization. While facing a seeming dead end, Balkovec accepted a front-office internship with Los Tigres Del Licey, a team in the Dominican Professional Baseball League.21

Following that experience, Balkovec engaged in additional volunteer intern roles as a strength and conditioning coach throughout 2013 and January 2014. She interned in the Arizona Fall League for the Chicago White Sox and on campus at Arizona State University. During that period, she was also a waitress, worked at Lululemon, and began taking classes on campus with the intent of pursuing a PhD in nutrition. When the Arizona Fall League ended, Balkovec returned to the White Sox in another volunteer capacity. At that point, she discontinued her coursework and temporarily stepped away from her academic career.

Balkovec pursued positions in pro baseball in the spring of 2014, only to face a stream of rejections. At the suggestion of her sister Stephanie, she changed the name on her résumé from Rachel to Rae, an experiment to gauge whether a gender-neutral name would impact her response rate. It did. Suddenly, “Rae” began receiving numerous callbacks from organizations about potential job opportunities. The way Balkovec figured it, “Yes, they will find out I am a woman, but if they talk to me, they’ll hear that I know what I’m talking about.”22

Unfortunately, she fell short of persuading teams to look past her sex. One caller said, “Can I speak to Rae?” to which Balkovec replied, “This is she.” After that, as Balkovec described to MLB.com years later, “There was an awkward pause on the other end of the line and he stuttered and said, ‘I’m sorry, I was calling about a job, and I just wanted to make sure I said your name correctly.’ He was just so surprised I was a girl.”23 He never called back.

“I never felt anger,” Balkovec told CBS News in 2020. “Necessary frustration and not understanding and ‘Give me a chance,’ like those were words that came. But not, like, anger. That was a lesson of, like, ‘Okay, look, if they’re not going to hire me because I’m a woman, I don’t wanna work for them anyway.’”24

With no prospects in affiliated baseball, Balkovec accepted a job at Cressey Sports Performance, a training facility in Hudson, Massachusetts.25 But before she could move there, the Cardinals offered her the role of minor-league strength and conditioning coordinator in February 2014. She was the first woman to work fulltime as a strength coach in affiliated pro ball.26 She said that when the Cardinals hired her, she only had $14 in her bank account and had to borrow from her parents to get to Florida for spring training.27

Early in the 2014 season, Balkovec told MLB.com, “I still have a lot to prove to everyone in this organization and to everyone in the field, but hopefully I’m making a good first impression. I hope I can do a good enough job here to open the door for other women who want to be involved in strength and conditioning.”28

The Cardinals dismissed questions about challenges Balkovec would present. “When you carry yourself the way Rachel does and you’re professional about the way you go about your daily work, it’s not a problem and it won’t be a problem,” said Oliver Marmol, who was managing the State College Spikes, the Cardinals affiliate in the Class A short-season New York-Penn League. He added:

Rachel has taken things to another level by building a curriculum around strength and conditioning and what the players need to know for certain exercises. Now there’s no excuse for the Latin guys to not be able to do an exercise the right way because they didn’t understand. Rachel cares about these guys as people, so they take an interest in learning the language and being able to communicate with her and do everything the right way. The effort she’s put in to teach them and to learn the language herself has been extraordinary.29

Cardinals head athletic trainer Greg Hauck also praised the hiring, saying the Cardinals had been impressed with Balkovec’s knowledge and thinking. “She would do the program but would take things a step further.” he said. “She started looking at how much the guys were running during games and a lot of other components, and no one had told her to do those things. She added onto her job duties, which was exciting to see.”30

Hundreds of applications had poured in for the job, but “Rachel stood out amongst them all,” said Hauck. “We took the best strength coach we interviewed, male or female.”

Despite being the only woman in an all-male environment, Balkovec felt confident that her career as a former collegiate athlete would help garner the respect of the players. “If they’re in a slump or on a roll, or if they’re feeling great or if their bodies hurt, those are all things I experienced in my own career,” she said. “And really, it just gives me a little street cred. I think the guys care more that I can throw a baseball than they do about what I can do in the weight room.”

Just as she had as an intern in Johnson City, Balkovec went beyond her role as a strength and conditioning coach. She took on extra responsibilities such as accompanying players on grocery shopping trips, educating them about how to read nutritional labels, and helping them with their English. She would play the role of older sister and mom. The players eventually started affectionately calling her “Raquelita.”31

HOUSTON AND LATIN AMERICA

After two years with the Cardinals, Balkovec moved to the Houston Astros as their Latin American Strength and Conditioning Coordinator in 2016, the first woman to hold such a job in affiliated baseball.32 Bill Firkus, the Astros director of sports medicine and performance, said gender did not factor into Balkovec’s hiring: “It was more we’re looking for a certain type of person—open-minded, forward-thinking, incredibly skilled, passionate to get better every day, and she fit the bill.”33 Balkovec’s increasing proficiency with Spanish, which she continued to learn on her own, caught the attention of assistant director of minor league operations Pete Putila. He commended Balkovec for her dedication to learning and her ability to foster team building and competition. “It was a unique challenge given that these players were from a different country speaking a different language,” he said. “I mean, she really took control there. The kids had fun, too. She just always expected excellence and found ways to get that from the players”34

Allen Rowin, director of minor league operations for the Astros, who was responsible for hiring Balkovec, echoed that sentiment. “You could look in the weight room and not tell the difference from her and other strength coaches,” he said. “She just happened to have a ponytail. She was doing the same mechanics, using the same plan as everybody else. She blended in with the guys, throwing with rehab assignments, running, stretching. No difference.”35

In 2018, Balkovec was promoted to strength and conditioning coach for the Corpus Christi Hooks, the Astros’ Double-A affiliate in the Texas League. “I was so fortunate to be with the Astros 2016 through 2018— maybe unfortunate, but fortunate in some ways,” she said at her introductory press conference as Tampa Tarpons manager in 2022, alluding to the Astros’ big-league sign-stealing scandal in 2017. “I was seeing them on the forefront of technology, just getting Trackman and Rapsodo. I was just baptized with fire. As a strength coach, I was managing eight different technologies in 2018. It was extremely helpful.”36

In addition to her primary role, Balkovec started collaborating with and learning from various hitting coaches within the organization.37 One of them was Dillon Lawson, who would go on to play a pivotal part in advancing Balkovec’s career trajectory. “Dillon took me under his wing, and I soon found myself partaking in hitting meetings, reading articles, and having extended conversations that helped fuel my interest in hitting,” she told me. “Dillon also set me on my path to go back to school to earn my second master’s degree, in addition to guiding me towards doing my own research on eye-tracking for hitters.”38

Balkovec enrolled at Vrije University in Amsterdam to pursue that second master’s, in human movement sciences. While there, she became an apprentice hitting coach for the Netherlands National Baseball and Softball programs.40

To fulfill her academic research obligations, Balkovec became a research and development intern at Driveline Baseball in Kent, Washington.41 Although she mostly studied gaze tracking for hitters, one of her biggest contributions came in Driveline’s motion capture lab. “We went from athletes throwing 5 to 7 mph lower to athletes [hitting personal records] in the lab,” said Driveline sports science manager Anthony Brady of Balkovec’s time in Kent. “Rachel was super adamant about setting the tone for the culture in the lab and getting everything out of the athletes.”42

Balkovec received her second master’s degree from Vrije University in 2019.

 

Rachel Balkovec spent two full seasons managing the Tarpons before taking a position in the Miami Marlins front office in 2024. (Photo by Mark LoMoglio / Tampa Tarpons)

 

WEARING PINSTRIPES

On November 22, 2019, after having lived in 15 cities and three countries over 12 years, Balkovec became the first female hitting coach in affiliated professional baseball when she signed on with the New York Yankees as a hitting coach for the organization’s rookie-level Gulf Coast League team in Tampa.43

Lawson, who was then working for the Yankees, dismissed any suggestion that Balkovec was merely a symbolic appointment. “She’s not a token hire. She never was a token hire. Whether she’s male or female, it doesn’t change the fact that she is a great coach,” he said. “Not everyone will understand this, but you wish everyone could.”44

The 2020 minor-league season was shut down during spring training because of the COVID-19 pandemic, so Balkovec went to Australia and became a hitting coach for the Sydney Blue Sox of the Australian Baseball League.45 During her time with the Blue Sox, one of her players was Manny Ramirez. The Red Sox legend spoke highly of Balkovec. “Rachel has helped me a lot with training, lifting, hitting,” he said. “She’s smart, she’s a woman of integrity, she knows what she wants and she’s persistent. Rachel has a big future.”46

The minor leagues resumed operations in 2021, and Balkovec was the first woman named to coach in the Futures Game.47 The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown asked for her game-worn cap, which was put on display.

On January 9, 2022, the Yankees named Balkovec manager of the Tampa Tarpons of the Class A Florida State League.48 Another first was added to the list.

Balkovec told The Athletic that vice president of player development Kevin Reese had approached her in December 2021. “Reese said that you don’t have to be a defensive specialist to be a manager right now,” Balkovec said. “Let’s open our minds to what a manager really is: a leader. When he described it like that, I immediately opened my mind to it. I think this is actually a better role for me than a hitting coach. I don’t lose sleep over mechanics. I lose sleep over culture.”49

Reese described the decision as a no-brainer. “The feedback was always positive on Rachel,” he said. “Everybody was on board. This is about her qualifications and her ability to lead.”50

Balkovec would soon garner acclaim from the likes of Yankees general manager Brian Cashman and manager Aaron Boone, commissioner Rob Manfred, and tennis legend Billie Jean King, who tweeted, “History made in baseball!”51

After that tweet, Balkovec joked, “Okay, I can die now. My career’s over.”52

At her introductory press conference as Tarpons manager, a Zoom call with 112 media correspondents online, Balkovec described her journey as “the American dream.” She said the initial word that crossed her mind upon getting the job was “gratitude.” As one might suspect, she reiterated her gratitude to her parents, saying they “raised me to be a competitive athlete, not a woman or a man, but just to be competitive and capable and aggressive.” When asked about the sexist blowback that would likely follow her hiring, Balkovec said, “Three years ago, I was sleeping on a mattress that I had pulled out of a dumpster in Amsterdam. If you know yourself and you know where you came from, it doesn’t really matter.”

As the season began, Balkovec said her style would revolve around establishing elevated and clear expectations, embracing honesty and straightforwardness, and ensuring that every day holds significance. She told the University of New Mexico alumni publication Mirage Magazine, “My goal is really to know the names of the girlfriends, the dogs, the families of all the players. My goal is to develop them as young men and young people who have an immense amount of pressure on them. My goal is to support the coaches that are on the staff.”53

Balkovec told ESPN that she spent the months leading up to her managerial debut meticulously learning the rule book, and she didn’t shy away from saying she felt nervous. “I’m going to make mistakes, and they’re going to go on Twitter,” she said. “People are like, ‘Do you struggle with imposter syndrome?’ And I’m like, ‘Every f—ing day.’ You know why? Because I put myself in stressful situations. I’ve been nervous my whole life, in a good way.…If you’re not nervous about what you’re doing, then you’re just comfortable.”54

MANAGING THE TARPONS

Balkovec made her managerial debut on April 8, 2022, at Joker Marchant Stadium, home of the Lakeland Flying Tigers, a Detroit affiliate. Before the game, after signing numerous autographs, Balkovec said:

It’s been 10 years of just working to this point. … I was blatantly discriminated against back then. Some people say not to say that, but it’s just part of what has happened, and I think it’s important to say because it lets you know how much change has happened. So, blatant discrimination, that was 2010-ish, and now here we are 12 years later and I’m sitting here at a press conference as a manager.55

Though the spotlight was clearly on her, Balkovec said she didn’t feel as though she were making history. “I feel like the Yankees are making history,” she said. As Balkovec—the visiting manager—ran onto to the field toward the first-base coaching box in the top of the second inning, a chant resonated throughout the crowd of nearly 3,000: “Let’s go, Rachel!” That night, Balkovec would secure her inaugural victory as manager.

After the game, Jasson Dominguez, the Yankees’ top prospect at the time, talked about how much the game meant to him. “It was an honor to play in the game and I feel very humbled,” he said. “We just wanted to get that first win out of the way to give her some confidence in her new role and it was important to get that done today. I will never forget this day.”

Balkovec was presented with the game ball following the last out. But she had to give up her Tarpons jersey and hat. They too were en route to the Hall of Fame for public display.56

Before departing from the stadium, Balkovec stood in the outfield and absorbed the surroundings. “On one level this is drawing young people to the game, female or male, but this moment transcends sports,” she said. “They may not know about minor-league baseball, but they showed up for this moment. Sports always brings so many people together from different backgrounds and, in my case, a different gender. And once you’re together in that same room, you realize you’re all just human beings and you’re going after the same thing.”57

The Tarpons ended the year with a record of 61–67 (.477), finishing fifth in the six-team Florida State League West Division.58 As of August 2024, four Tarpons from Balkovec’s inaugural season have gone on to play in the major leagues, not counting the six big-leaguers she managed while they were on injury rehab assignments.59

In 2023, the Tarpons were 61–69 and finished last in their division.60 In one of many signs of the changes in baseball, Balkovec was thrown out of a June game by a female umpire, Isabella Robb, herself a trailblazer, one of only two women umpiring in the minor leagues in 2023.61 Balkovec’s two-year record in Tampa: 122–136.

As that second season neared its conclusion, Balkovec reflected on her journey, describing it as a “whirlwind” that sometimes felt slow and at others seemed to fly by. She noted that her two years in Tampa had been as much about strengthening previous lessons on leadership as they’d been about gaining new insights:

I had somebody ask me at the beginning of the year if I’m a player’s manager, and I thought for a second and I said “No, I’m not.” I think that my job at the lower levels is to really keep these guys accountable and keep them looking at what they can do to get better, and not taking their side as much. … Relentless accountability for the guys is really the best thing for them. Never feels good in the moment, probably not for me or for them. I don’t like to always be (the) bad cop, but I think it’s just what they might thank me for 10 years from now.62

On January 9, 2024, the Associated Press reported that Balkovec would be leaving the Yankees organization to become the director of player development for the Miami Marlins, where new president of baseball operations Peter Bendix was reshaping the organization’s front office.63 Prior to bringing Balkovec on board, Bendix had hired former Philadelphia Phillies and San Francisco Giants manager Gabe Kapler as assistant general manager and Vinesh Kanthan, former assistant director of baseball operations for the Texas Rangers, as director of baseball operations.64 In his report on Balkovec’s hiring, which the organization did not announce until a week after the news broke, Jeff Passan of ESPN observed that Balkovec would have “arguably the second-most-taxing job in the organization behind Bendix’s. Farm directors oversee more than 150 players and dozens of managers and coaches.”65

“There’s a lot of us kind of starting fresh and new,” Balkovec told Kyle Sielaff and Stephen Strom of the Marlins Radio Network. “It’s all kind of a really blank slate for us personally, of kind of getting a fresh perspective on what’s going on inside the organization and where it could possibly go.”66

Balkovec emphasized the importance of being in the moment, controlling the controllables, and setting small goals. For example, she imagined telling a player, “‘Hey, 16-year-old Latin American player, your goal is to make it in the big leagues!’ That can be seven years from now. That can get really easily lost and forgotten about, and you can lose motivation. But, if I give you a small goal, right now, to accomplish that’s a part of that process, then you’re going to be much more likely to see that right in front of your face and to really push for it.”67

HANDLING CRITICISM

The interviews I have conducted with Balkovec in recent years, which would invariably become valuable learning experiences for me, have often centered around coping with criticism and navigating rejection. During a 2020 interview, I asked her how she manages when people make offensive remarks. She said:

I just feel bad for them. This is an unpopular opinion, but I do not believe that anyone bullies you; I believe you allow yourself to be bullied. Now, I would like to add, when you are an 11-year-old child in middle school, it is much more difficult to handle bullying. I was bullied all the way through high school, but luckily, when I was younger, my parents told me, “OK, you are being bullied, now what are you going to do about it?” My parents did not go to the principal to aid in my defense. They told me to handle the situation, which is exactly what I did. I learned how to stand up for myself in the face of bullying. Now, this is obviously not the case in all situations. There are some situations no child should have to go through, I completely understand that. However, for most of your average run-of-the-mill bullying, we need to take it upon ourselves to make our kids tougher and we need to make adults tougher as well to handle such bullying.68

She said she’s able to brush off any offensive criticism because it’s happened before and will happen again. “I can either choose to let that into my head, or I can look at them and think, ‘Wow, that’s really sad. I hope you do not have a daughter, I hope you do not have a wife, I hope you do not have a sister and I hope you do not have a mother, because that is embarrassing.’”69

Balkovec even goes so far as to say she’s “glad” for the discrimination she’s endured over the years. “This is a little counterintuitive,” she told GoLobos.com, “but I’m glad I was discriminated against. By the time I was full time, I had done multiple internships. I was super prepared. I’m glad my path was difficult, and it still serves me to this day.” She says that within five minutes of her entering a room, her presence and confident bilingual communication make any lingering prejudice disappear. “The players I’ve worked with, whether they like me or not, whether they agree with what I’m saying or not, they do respect me,” she said. “They recognize my passion, my hard work, and my expertise.”70

Player development departments have significantly expanded in recent years, with teams now employing roles that were fringe or nonexistent a decade ago, such as performance science, behavioral science, and baseball innovation. Teams are increasingly open to hiring specialists who are not former players. With the coaching landscape at all levels of professional baseball now far more expansive, Balkovec and other women have been given opportunities to demonstrate that their skills and knowledge can help organizations thrive.

BEYOND MANAGING AND BEYOND BASEBALL

When Balkovec was managing the Tarpons, she told The Athletic that the role would be a stepping stone toward her ultimate aspiration of becoming a general manager:

When you think about bridging the gap between being a minor-league hitting coach and general manager—that’s a pretty big gap. For a while I thought I needed to become a scout because, like, that’s what GMs do. But I love the coaching aspect and developing personal relationships with people. And when you say relationships, that usually means one person, but I love orchestrating a group of human beings and putting them together to do really difficult tasks, which is hard to do.71

Beyond the diamond and outside of the executive offices, Balkovec aims to serve as an inspiration, especially to young women and fathers with daughters. “I want to be a visible idea for young women,” she said. “I want to be out there. It’s something I’m very passionate about.”72

She talked about that during our telephone interview in 2020: “Hitting a baseball is the least of my concerns,” she said. “I am more concerned with: Did I make a man grow into a better father? A better husband? Did I make an impact on how dads view their daughters? How did I positively impact the community? That is what matters to me, that is what makes me happy.”73

Balkovec followed through on this sentiment during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. In March 2020, she created a GoFundMe called “Humans for Humans During COVID,” pledging to donate $5 of her own money daily while requesting a $10 minimum donation for every podcast and interview she did.74 When asked about this by WBUR, Boston’s NPR station, Balkovec said, “After we were sent home, I just kind of felt helpless, and I was like, ‘Wait, I’m not helpless. I can do something.’”75 She would end up raising over $6,000.76

After years of resilience and battle scars, Balkovec has emerged as a beacon of hope and inspiration on the baseball field and off, serving as a role model particularly for women in male-dominated fields, but also people from all walks of life.

BARRETT SNYDER holds an MS in Sports Management and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Drexel University. He is currently enrolled at West Chester University studying Exercise Science with a concentration in Sports Psychology.

 

NOTES

1 Elizabeth Merrill, “New York Yankees Minor League Manager Rachel Balkovec Has Worked Her Entire Life for This Moment,” ESPN, April 8, 2022, https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/33691782/new-york-yankees-minor-league-manager-rachel-balkovec-worked-entire-life-moment.

2 Merrill.

3 Anna Katherine Clemmons, “Title IX Stories: Yankees’ Class-A Manager Rachel Balkovec Never Gave up Quest,” Fox Sports, June 22, 2022, https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/tile-ix-stories-yankees-class-a-manager-rachel-balkovec-never-gave-up-quest; Barrett Snyder, “Cover Interview: Rachel Balkovec, New York Yankees,” Inside Pitch Magazine, March/April 2022, https://www.abca.org/magazine/magazine/2022-2-March_April_Cover_Interview_Rachel_Balkovec.aspx; Leslie Linthicum, “Former Lobo catcher climbs the MLB ladder,” Mirage Magazine, May 2, 2022, https://mirage.unm.edu/big-league/.

4 Snyder, “Cover Interview: Rachel Balkovec.”

5 Clemmons, “Title IX Stories.”

6 “2019–2020 Alumna of the Year: Rachel Balkovec ’05,” SKUTT Catholic, https://skuttcatholic.com/alumna-of-the-year-2020/.

7 Merrill, “New York Yankees Minor League Manager Rachel Balkovec.”

8 Merrill.

9 Mac Engel, “How Erin Hartigan and Rachel Balkovec realized dreams with Bally Sports and NY Yankees,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, April 8, 2022, https://www.star-telegram.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/mac-engel/article260196760.html.

10 Lindsay Berra, “Cards Have Pioneer in Female Strength Coach Balkovec,” MLB.com, May 30, 2014, https://www.mlb.com/news/cards-have-pioneer-in-female-strength-coach-rachel-balkovec/c-77462528.

11 Merrill, “New York Yankees Minor League Manager Rachel Balkovec.”

12 Engel, “How Erin Hartigan and Rachel Balkovec realized dreams.”

13 “2019–2020 Alumna of the Year.”

14 “Former Lobo Rachel Balkovec Makes History as First Female Minor League Manager,” GoLobos.com, January 11, 2022, https://golobos.com/news/2022/01/10/former-lobo-rachel-balkovec-makes-history-as-first-female-minor-league-manager/; Merrill, “New York Yankees Minor League Manager Rachel Balkovec.”

15 Snyder, “Cover Interview.”

16 Snyder, “Cover Interview.”

17 Tiona Donadio, “Rachel Balkovec Becomes First Female Minor League Manager,” Game Haus, January 14, 2022, https://thegamehaus.com/mlb/rachel-balkovec-first-female-minor-league-manager/2022/01/14/; Rachel Holland, “LSU Grad Rachel Balkovec Named Minor League Baseball Manager,” LSU Media Center, January 21, 2022, https://www.lsu.edu/mediacenter/news/2022/01/21balkovectarpons.rh.php; “About,” RachelBalkovec.com, https://www.rachelbalkovec.com/about.

18 Holland, “LSU Grad Rachel Balkovec.”

19 Alex Schroeder, “How Rachel Balkovec Made Baseball History,” WBUR, May 22, 2020, https://www.wbur.org/onlyagame/2020/05/22/rachel-balkovec-yankees-coach-mlb.

20 Schroeder.

21 Berra, “Cards Have Pioneer.”

22 Clemmons, “Title IX Stories.”

23 Berra. “Cards Have Pioneer.”

24 “First female Yankees hitting coach describes her long journey to the top,” CBS News, March 7, 2020, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rachel-balkovec-first-female-yankees-hitting-coach-describes-her-long-journey-to-the-top/.

25 Clemmons, “Title IX Stories.”

26 Berra, “Cards Have Pioneer.”

27 Ken Davidoff. “Rachel Balkovec is only just beginning with historic Yankees job,” New York Post, January 14, 2022, https://nypost.com/2022/01/12/rachel-balkovec-is-only-just-beginning-with-yankees-job/.

28 Berra, “Cards Have Pioneer.”

29 Berra.

30 Berra.

31 Berra.

32 Brian McTaggart, “Astros’ strength coach blazing trail as female,” MLB.com, February 27, 2016, https://www.mlb.com/news/astros-rachel-balkovec-breaking-down-barriers-c165143530; Nicole Brodeur, “How a West Seattle woman is making history with the New York Yankees,” Seattle Times, January 7, 2020, https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/i-have-to-do-this-west-seattle-woman-helps-major-league-baseball-players-to-keep-their-eyes-on-the-ball/.

33 McTaggart. “Astros’ Strength Coach.”

34 Merrill, “New York Yankees Minor League Manager.”

35 Adam Winkler, “Astros executive who hired Rachel Balkovec says her skill set was always there,” ABC13 Eyewitness News, January 14, 2022, https://abc13.com/first-female-manager-in-minors-rachel-balkovec-low-a-tampa-tarpons-new-york-yankees/11465008/.

36 Matt Young, “What Rachel Balkovec said about the Astros in her introductory press conference,” Chron, January 13, 2022, https://www.chron.com/sports/astros/article/Rachel-Balkovec-Astros-Yankees-manager-first-woman-16770307.php.

37 Schroeder, “How Rachel Balkovec Made Baseball History.”

38 Snyder, “Cover Interview.”

39 Brodeur, “How a West Seattle woman is making history.”

40 “Rachel Balkovec Becomes First Female Manager in Affiliated Pro Baseball,” FloSoftball, January 12, 2022, https://www.flosoftball.com/articles/7334157-rachel-balkovec-becomes-first-female-manager-in-affiliated-pro-baseball.

41 Rob Terranova, “Yanks’ Balkovec sees dual responsibility,” MiLB.com, January 20, 2020, https://www.milb.com/news/q-a-with-new-york-yankees-hitting-instructor-rachel-balkovec-312444932.

42 Merrill, “New York Yankees Minor League Manager.”

43 George A. King III, “Yankees hire Rachel Balkovec as minor league hitting coach,” New York Post, November 23, 2019, https://nypost.com/2019/11/23/yankees-hire-rachel-balkovec-as-minor-league-hitting-coach/; Bryan Hoch, “Rachel Balkovec tabbed Low-A Skipper,” MLB.com, January 12, 2022, https://www.mlb.com/news/rachel-balkovec-to-manage-yankees-low-a-team.

44 Merrill, “New York Yankees Minor League Manager.”

45 “New York Yankees name Rachel Balkovec manager of the Tampa Tarpons,” Yes Network, January 11, 2022, https://www.yesnetwork.com/news/new-york-yankees-name-rachel-balkovec-manager-of-the-tampa-tarpons.

46 Christian Nicolussi, “How Sydney’s hitting coach smashed through US baseball’s glass ceiling,” Sydney Morning Herald, December 18, 2020, https://www.smh.com.au/sport/how-sydney-s-hitting-coach-smashed-through-us-baseball-s-glass-ceiling-20201217-p56ogp.html.

47 Michael Guzman. “Rachel Balkovec makes futures game history,” MLB.com, July 11, 2021, https://www.mlb.com/news/rachel-balkovec-futures-game-history.

48 Nick Selbe, “Report: Yankees to Hire Rachel Balkovec as First-Ever Female Manager in Minor Leagues,” Sports Illustrated, January 9, 2022, https://www.si.com/mlb/2022/01/10/yankees-hiring-rachel-balkovec-first-ever-woman-manager-minor-leagues.

49 Lindsey Adler, “How Yankees’ Rachel Balkovec became baseball’s first female manager: ‘It’s a credit to her,” The Athletic, January 12, 2022, https://theathletic.com/3067563/2022/01/12/how-yankees-rachel-balkovec-became-baseballs-first-female-manager-its-a-credit-to-her/.

50 Linthicum, “Former Lobo Catcher Climbs the MLB Ladder.”

51 Brendan Kuty, “Yankees introduce Rachel Balkovec as 1st woman manager: 7 takeaways,” NJ.com, January 12, 2022, https://www.nj.com/yankees/2022/01/yankees-introduce-rachel-balkovec-as-1st-woman-manager-7-takeaways.html; Associated Press, “Rachel Balkovec looks forward to breaking barrier as hitting coach,” Chicago Tribune, December 11, 2019, https://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/national-sports/sns-mlb-yankees-rachel-balkovec-hitting-coach-20191211-ic32fojcvvfzhez2qbd6lwwtx4-story.html; Olivia Wotherspoon, “Rachel Balkovec Becomes First-Ever Female Minor League Manager,” The Owl Feed, February 1, 2022, https://theowlfeed.com/8878/sports/rachel-balkovec-becomes-first-ever-female-minor-league-manager/.

52 Adam Wells, “Rachel Balkovec Discusses Billie Jean King Interaction After Being Hired by Yankees,” Bleacher Report, January 12, 2022, https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10023617-rachel-balkovec-discusses-billie-jean-king-interaction-after-being-hired-by-yankees.

53 Linthicum, “Former Lobo Catcher Climbs the MLB Ladder.”

54 Merrill, “New York Yankees Minor League Manager.”

55 Mark Didtler, “Rachel Balkovec cheered, wins debut managing Yanks affiliate,” AP News, April 9, 2022, https://apnews.com/article/mlb-business-sports-baseball-lakeland-3fdb8e38d132d9aef2a2ea65dfaabfdc.

56 Didtler; Holly Cain. “Rachel Bakovec is managing just fine, thank you,” OSDBSports, April 12, 2022, https://web.archive.org/web/20220412180606/https://www.osdbsports.com/editorials/rachel-bakovec-managing-just-fine-thank-you.

57 Cain.

58 “2022 Florida State League,” Baseball Reference, https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/league.cgi?id=96464f9a.

59 “2022 Tampa Tarpons,” Baseball Reference, https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/team.cgi?id=8b39a9c4.

60 “2023 Florida State League,” Baseball Reference https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/league.cgi?id=5da9dd89.

61 Associated Press, “Yankees Minor League Manager Rachel Balkovec Ejected from Game by Female Umpire,” Toronto Star, July 1, 2023, https://www.thestar.com/sports/baseball/milb/yankees-minor-league-manager-rachel-balkovec-ejected-from-game-by-female-umpire/article_e48dab77-c8e5-5a40-bac5-2346b149d53b.html.

62 Didtler, “Yankees minor league manager Rachel Balkovec wrapping up second season with Single-A Tampa,” Local10.com, September 7, 2023, https://www.local10.com/sports/2023/09/07/yankees-minor-league-manager-rachel-balkovec-wrapping-up-second-season-with-single-a-tampa/.

63 Alanis Thames, “Miami Marlins in agreement to hire Rachel Balkovec as director of player development, AP source says,” January 9, 2024, https://apnews.com/article/marlins-rachel-balkovec-05ee0f4743d1442ff8b5197a581442c3. Balkovec was not the first female farm director/director of player development to be hired by an MLB organization. The Astros hired Sara Goodrum, who had been hitting coordinator for the Milwaukee Brewers, as farm director in February 2022. Goodrum occupied that role in both 2022 and 2023.

64 Christina De Nicola, “Front-Office hires Kanthan, Kapler debut at WM,” December 4, 2023, https://www.mlb.com/news/marlins-hire-vinesh-kanthan-as-director-of-baseball-operations.

65 Jeff Passan, “Marlins Hire Trailblazer Rachel Balkovec as Farm Director, Sources Say,” ESPN, January 9, 2024, https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/39273180/marlins-hire-trailblazer-balkovec-farm-director-sources-say.

66 Laura Georgia, “As director of player development, Balkovec speaks on Marlins’ culture and expectations,” Fish on First, May 9, 2024, https://fishonfirst.com/news-rumors/miami-marlins/rachel-balkovec-player-development-culture/.

67 Georgia.

68 Rachel Balkovec, interview by Barrett Snyder.

69 Balkovec.

70 Linthicum, “Former Lobo Catcher Climbs the MLB Ladder.”

71 Adler, “How Yankees’ Rachel Balkovec.”

72 Linthicum, “Former Lobo Catcher Climbs the MLB Ladder.”

73 Rachel Balkovec, interview by Barrett Snyder.

74 Rachel Balkovec, “Humans for Humans During COVID,” GoFundMe, Accessed August 25, 2024, https://www.gofundme.com/f/humans-for-humans-during-covid.

75 Schroeder, “How Rachel Balkovec Made Baseball History.”

76 Balkovec, “Humans for Humans During COVID.”