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As the start of the minor league season nears, the New York Yankees have hired Rachel Balkovec as the manager of the Tampa Tarpons, their Low-A level affiliate.

Balkovec's hiring is a historic one, as it will be the first time a woman has been named a full-time manager of a major league-affiliated team, adding another notable first to her career which has seen her become a trailblazer for women in the sports industry.

This won't be Balkovec's first role within the Yankees organization. In 2019, she was hired to be a hitting coach for the club, with the position set to start in spring training 2020.

Per Balkovec's website, outside of the Yankees, she has been a part of several teams not only in the United States, but all across the world. Other teams that she has lent her expertise to have been the St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago White Sox, Houston Astros, and the Netherlands National Baseball and Softball programs.

In more recent years, the inclusion of women in the baseball industry has grown, with two big firsts occurring in 2020: the hiring of Miami Marlins' General Manager Kim Ng, the highest-ranking female baseball executive, as well as the San Francisco Giants' Alyssa Nakken, who was the first female coach in MLB history.

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