The New York Yankees announced a historic hire in naming Rachel Balkovec the manager of the Tampa Tarpons, the organization’s Low A Minor League affiliate. The appointment makes Balkovec the first female manager in professional baseball history. 

Balkovec, 34, will manage the Tarpons for the 2022 season. Balkovec has broken barriers before, having previously been hired by the Yankees to be a minor league hitting coach in 2019. She is believed to be the first woman hired as a full-time hitting instructor by a big-league team. 

Balkovec started her MLB journey in 2012 as strength and conditioning coach for the St. Louis Cardinals’ minor league affiliate in Johnson City, Tennessee. She was then promoted to the Cardinals’ minor league strength and conditioning coordinator position in 2014 and 2015, making her the first woman to hold a full-time position in that field in major league affiliated baseball.

In 2016, Balkovec moved from the Cardinals to the Houston Astros, becoming the Astros' Latin American strength and conditioning coordinator. Along with this new position, Balkovec learned Spanish to better communicate with her athletes. Two years down the road, she became the strength and conditioning coach for the Astros’ Class AA Corpus Christi Hooks.

Balkovec comes from a Division I softball background, catching at Creighton and the University of New Mexico. Balkovec also completed two master's degrees, one in kinesiology from Louisiana State and another in human movement sciences at Vrije University in the Netherlands. While pursuing her master's in the Netherlands, she also served as an assistant hitting coach for the country’s baseball and softball programs.

Balkovec will make her MiLB coaching debut in April 2022.