TAMPA, Fla. — It’s a historic step. 

The New York Yankees introduced Rachel Balkovec as the new manager of the Tampa Tarpons, a Class-A level team in their minor league system. 

"When players meet me there’s a level of curiosity, which that’s normal — change is change,” Balkcovec said. "I was curious, I was like, 'Geez, what am I going to look like in a uniform?'”

What You Need To Know

  • The New York Yankees introduced Rachel Balkovec as the new manager of the Tampa Tarpons, making her baseball's first female manager.

  • In 2019, she joined the Yankees as minor league baseball's first female hitting coach. 

  • Balkovec hopes her time as manager helps pave the way for a more inclusive playing field. 

The job makes Balkovec the first full-time female manager in the history of affiliated baseball. But Balkovec is confident she can earn the team's respect and trust. 

"I just know within five minutes — I walk into the room, the presence that I have, how I speak confidently, I’m bilingual and that’s something that I learned,” she said. "I’m from Nebraska, I’m not from a bilingual home. As soon as I open my mouth and start speaking — I’m speaking in Spanish and English, and they hear what I’m saying, and they know I know what I’m talking about, it all just goes away.”

It’s not her first time being the first. Balkovec has made a career of breaking barriers, previously working in strength and conditioning for the St. Louis Cardinals and Houston Astros. In 2019, she joined the Yankees as minor league baseball's first female hitting coach. 

"We’ve made a ton of progress," she said. "There’s going to be 11 women in uniform next year. Looking back on those days, it would have been incomprehensible to understand what the next decade was going to look like for myself and for others."

But her success did not come without her share of struggles. Despite her experience and two master's degrees, Balkovec was often overlooked. 

"There were many times in my career I felt extremely lonely," she said. "I literally didn’t have anyone to call that had been going through the same experiences."

Now she’s in the national spotlight as a role model for others, a job she fully embraces. 

"People ask, 'Why are you on social media?' I want to be a visible idea for young women, I want to be a visible idea for dads that have daughters," Balkovec siad. "I want to be out there. I have two jobs and that’s fine.”

Balkovec hopes her time as manager helps pave the way for a more inclusive playing field.