Rachel Balkovec

Rachel Balkovec (born July 5, 1987) is an American minor league baseball manager who is currently the director of player development for the Miami Marlins. In 2022, the New York Yankees named Balkovec manager of their Single–A minor league team, the Tampa Tarpons, making her the first woman to work as a full-time manager of a major league-affiliated team.

Early life Balkovec grew up in Omaha, Nebraska.

Career Balkovec began her career in 2012 as a temporary contract strength and conditioning coach for the Johnson City Cardinals, the Rookie league affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals. In that role, she won the Appalachian League's award for strength coach of the year. In 2014, she assumed a full-time role as Johnson City affiliate's strength and conditioning coach, the first time a woman had held that role in baseball. She also interviewed for a position as a quality control coach with the San Francisco Giants in fall 2019, but decided to take the Yankees' role.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic canceled the 2020 Minor League Baseball season, she coached in the Australian Baseball League. She was part of the coaching staff of the 2021 All-Star Futures Game. On April 8, 2022, the Tarpons defeated the Lakeland Flying Tigers 9-6, earning Balkovec her first win in her managerial debut in affiliated baseball.

On January 10, 2024, MLB.com reported Balkovec would be named Director of Player Development for the Miami Marlins as the team remakes its front office.

Overcoming gender challenges In 2013, she was waitressing and working at Lululemon, hoping to advance her coaching career, but after applying to 15 different teams in Phoenix and not hearing back, she changed her name on her resume and her email address from "Rachel" to "Rae" . Rather than emphasize she had been a Division I college softball catcher, she only said she had been a Division I college catcher. This led to phone interviews, but once people heard her voice, the only offers were for women's sports, Balkovec says. One team, she says, told her they would never hire a woman.