The Miami Marlins have hired Rachel Balkovec as their next director of player development, MLB.com's Christina De Nicola reported Tuesday afternoon.
Balkovec spent the past two seasons as the manager for the Low-A Tampa Tarpons, who are an affiliate of the New York Yankees. In 2022, she became the first woman to manage full-time in affiliated baseball.
A few years earlier, Balkovec became the first woman to work as a minor league hitting coach, also in the Yankees' farm system. She previously held roles with the St. Louis Cardinals and Houston Astros' minor league teams as well.
Balkovec was a catcher for the Creighton softball team before eventually transferring to New Mexico. She earned a master's degree in kinesiology from LSU in 2012, then a second master's degree in human movement sciences from Vrije University in the Netherlands in 2018.
The Marlins are no stranger to making groundbreaking additions to their front office, considering they hired Kim Ng as their general manager in 2020. Ng was the first female general manager of a men's team in North American professional sports history, as well as the first East Asian-American general manager in MLB.
Ng stepped down from her position last fall, though, leading to an overhaul of Miami's front office. Longtime Tampa Bay Rays executive Peter Bendix came on as President of Baseball Operations, Vinesh Kanthan was hired as Director of Baseball Operations and Gabe Kapler earned the Assistant GM tag.
Balkovec will now be tasked with overseeing the Marlins' player development department, using her years of experience in the minor leagues to help Bendix, Kanthan and Kapler field another playoff squad in 2024.
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