Miami Marlins to hire trailblazer Rachel Balkovec as director of player development

The Miami Marlins are in agreement with Rachel Balkovec to be the organization’s director of player development, a source confirmed to the Miami Herald on Tuesday. A formal announcement is expected later this week.

Balkovec, 36, has spent the past two seasons as the manager of the Tampa Tarpons, the Single A affiliate for the New York Yankees. She was the first woman to work as a full-time manager for an MLB-affiliated team. Balkovec also previously served as the hitting coach for the Yankees’ Florida Complex League team and as a minor-league strength and conditioning coach — the first woman to hold both of those titles in a full-time capacity.

Balkovec’s hire, once official, will be the latest front-office move under new president of baseball operations Peter Bendix. Bendix has already hired Gabe Kapler as an assistant general manager and Vinesh Kanthan as a director of baseball operations.

The hiring also fills a position the Marlins allowed to remain vacant last season. Miami fired their previous director of player development Geoff DeGroot in September 2022 but didn’t fill his position in 2023. Director of minor league operations Hector Crespo took on the majority of the workload last season.

MLB.com first reported the news of Balkovec’s hiring.

The Marlins know improvement is needed from their farm system.

While Miami has its share of homegrown pitchers who should make an impact at the MLB level in 2024 (Eury Perez, Braxton Garrett, Trevor Rogers, Max Meyer and Andrew Nardi among them), the organization has struggled to steadily produce big leaguers under the Bruce Sherman ownership group when it comes to hitters.

The Marlins only had one homegrown position player on their playoff roster: Catcher Nick Fortes. They have no position players ranked among the top 100 prospects in baseball. Their highest ranked hitting prospect, infielder Jacob Berry, split time last season between High A Beloit and Double A Pensacola and is likely at least another full year away from being big-league ready.

The Marlins’ crop of top prospects was also thinned out last season through a bevy of trades to acquire established big leaguers and put Miami in position to make the playoffs for the first time in a full season since 2003. Among those moves:

▪ Outfielder and 2019 first-round pick JJ Bleday to the Oakland Athletics for left-handed reliever A.J. Puk.

▪ Infielder and 2021 first-round pick Kahlil Watson (along with veteran Jean Segura) to the Cleveland Guardians for first baseman/designated hitter Josh Bell.

▪ Left-handed pitcher and 2020 fourth-round pick Jake Eder, a top-10 prospect in the Miami organization, to the Chicago White Sox for third baseman Jake Burger.

▪ Infielders and international signees Marco Vargas and Ronald Hernandez, both of whom were playing at rookie-ball level in the minors but were among Miami’s top-20 prospects, to the New York Mets for right-handed reliever David Robertson.

▪ Infielder and international signee Jose Salas as part of the trade with the Minnesota Twins for infielder Luis Arraez.