MIAMI – Rachel Balkovec has agreed to take over as director of player development for the Marlins, sources tell MLB.com. The club did not confirm the news.
Balkovec, 36, is no stranger to the minor league landscape, having served in various capacities in three organizations since beginning her professional baseball career in 2012. She was the Yankees' Class A captain the past two seasons. A pioneer in baseball, she was the first woman to:
According to a story by MiLB.com's Rob Terranova, Balkovec has a background in advanced analytics and started out as a sports science major at Creighton and New Mexico, where she was an NCAA Division I catcher on their softball teams. Balkovec then earned a master's degree in kinesiology from LSU in 2012.
After graduating, Balkovec served as interim strength and conditioning coach in the Cardinals' organization for rookie Advanced Johnson City and went on to receive the Appalachian League Award for Strength Coach of the Year. In '14, she became the first woman to be hired as a full-time baseball coordinator. Two years later, she was hired by the Astros as their Latin America strength and conditioning coordinator. In 1818, she was hired as a strength and conditioning coach for the club's Double-A affiliate.
Balkovec later completed her master's degree at Vrije Universiteit in the Netherlands, conducting research on human movement sciences with a focus on biomechanics. She has spent a lot of time researching eye tracking for hitters and hip movement for pitchers at the Driveline Baseball data-driven performance center. Balkovec also coached in the Australian Baseball League after the 2020 minor league season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and she was named to the coaching staff for the SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game '21 at Coors Field.
Balkovec would be the latest front office addition under new president of baseball operations Peter Bendix, who has hired Gabe Kapler (assistant general manager) and Vinesh Kanthan (director of baseball operations) as he restructures the organization. In September 2022, Miami fired director of player development Geoff DeGroot. Since then, director of minor league operations Hector Crespo has stepped in, but hasn't had the title. The Marlins' farm system has struggled to produce homegrown position players in recent years and has fallen behind in MLB Pipeline's rankings due to a combination of draft, development and trade deadline moves to reach the 2023 postseason.