Born: 1987 (Omaha, Nebraska)
Biography:
Rachel Balkovec (born July 5, 1987) is an American minor league baseball manager in the New York Yankees organization. In 2022, the Yankees named Balkovec manager of their Class 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.
Balkovec grew up in Omaha, Nebraska. She has two sisters. Her father worked as a customer service manager for American Airlines, and her mother was a bookkeeper. As a student at Skutt Catholic High School in Omaha, Balkovec played softball, soccer, and basketball. She initially attended Creighton University, where she was a catcher on the Creighton Bluejays softball team, but transferred to the University of New Mexico, where she also played catcher for the New Mexico Lobos. She graduated from New Mexico in 2009 with a bachelor’s degree in exercise science. She then earned her master’s degree from Louisiana State University in kinesiology. In 2018, she enrolled in Vrije University in the Netherlands to study human movement sciences, earning her second master’s degree.
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 the Johnson City affiliate’s strength and conditioning coordinator, becoming the first woman to hold that position in baseball. In 2016, Balkovec was hired by the Houston Astros to be their Latin American strength and conditioning coordinator. She learned Spanish for the position, enabling her to better communicate with players. She was the first woman in that role in Major League Baseball. In 2018, she was promoted to be the Class AA Corpus Christi Hooks’ strength and conditioning coach.
After moving to the Netherlands to pursue a second master’s degree at Vrije University, Balkovec worked for the Dutch baseball and softball programs as an assistant hitting coach. After graduating, she returned to the United States to work at a fellowship at Driveline Baseball, researching hitters’ eye tracking and pitchers’ hip movement. In November 2019, Balkovec was announced as the New York Yankees’ newest Minor League hitting coach, becoming the first woman to hold such a position full-time. She also interviewed for a position as a quality control coach with the San Francisco Giants in the fall of 2019, but decided to take the Yankees’ role. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic canceling the 2020 Minor League Baseball season, she coached in the Australian Baseball League. She was also part of the coaching staff of the 2021 All-Star Futures Game.
On January 2022, Balkovec made history when the New York Yankees named her the manager of their Class A minor league team, the Tampa Tarpons. This appointment marked a groundbreaking moment for women in baseball, as Balkovec became the first woman to work as a full-time manager of a major league-affiliated team.
Awards:
– Appalachian League’s Award for Strength Coach of the Year