The Yankees have named Rachel Balkovec the manager of their Low-A Tampa Tarpons for 2022, making Balkovec the first female skipper in affiliated ball.
The news was first reported by Lindsey Adler of The Athletic over the weekend, and confirmed by a source to MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch on Sunday night.
Balkovec, 34, joined the Yankees as a minor-league hitting coach in November 2019, and spent last season in that capacity with the Yankees’ Florida Complex League affiliate.
A former I softball catcher at Creighton and New Mexico, Balkovec joined the Cardinals as a minor-league strength and conditioning coach in 2021, and worked in that role at various levels within the Cardinals and Astros’ systems through 2018.
Balkovec also did a fellowship with Driveline Baseball (becoming immersed in advanced analytics) and worked as a hitting coach for the Dutch National teams while getting a master’s degree in The Netherlands before joining the Yankees in November 2019. She coached in the Australian Baseball League in 2020 after COVID-19 wiped out the minor-league season, and her time in the FCL included being part of the Team USA Coaching Staff for the 2021 Futures Game.
Balkovec made history in 2019 when she was hired as the first full-time female hitting coach in affiliated ball, and will now do so again when the Tarpons open their season in April.
"I'm not the first woman to have a position in baseball, but I know this is a little different," Balkovec said last year when she was named the FCL team's hitting coach, per Hoch. "I'm a product of the women who have come before me in sports. If somebody thinks I'm a trailblazer, great, because hopefully that's creating an opportunity to think it's possible for others."
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