Miami Marlins Hire Trailblazer Rachel Balkovec as Director of Player Development

MIAMI, Fla. — Rachel Balkovec has agreed to become the Miami Marlins director of player development according to a story published on MLB.com.

Balkovec, a catcher in college at Creighton and New Mexico, continues to be a trailblazer in baseball as she is the first woman to become a full-time manager for a Major League-affiliated team (Tampa Tarpons from 2022-23), serve as a full-time hitting coach in a MLB organization (Yankees Florida Complex League team) and work as a full-time strength and conditioning coach in affiliated baseball.

Now you can add first director of player development to that expanding list.

Balkovec has a strong background in cutting-edge analytics having been an exercise science major at Creighton and New Mexico and having earned a master’s degree in kinesiology from LSU in 2012.

After graduating, Balkovec served as an interim strength and conditioning coach in the Cardinals’ organization for Rookie Advanced Johnson City and went on to earn the Appalachian League Award for Strength Coach of the Year. In 2014, she became the first woman to be hired as a full-time professional baseball coordinator. Two years later, she was hired by the Astros as the organization’s Latin America strength and conditioning coordinator. In 2018, she was hired as the strength and conditioning coach for the club’s Double-A affiliate.

Balkovec later worked on her master’s at Vrije Universiteit in the Netherlands, researching human movement sciences with a focus on biomechanics. She has spent time researching eye tracking for hitters and hip movement for pitchers at data-driven performance center Driveline Baseball. Balkovec also coached in the Australian Baseball League after the COVID-19 pandemic canceled the 2020 Minor League season, and she was named to the coaching staff for the ’21 SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game at Coors Field.

The Marlins became the first MLB team to hire a female general manager when Derek Jeter hired Kim Ng in 2020.