The Milwaukee Brewers have promoted Sara Goodrum to minor league hitting coordinator; she becomes the first woman to work in that role for a Major League Baseball side; "It's not like she's coming in from some other department," says vice president of minor league operations, Tom Flanagan
Thursday 28 January 2021 19:34, UK
The Milwaukee Brewers have promoted Sara Goodrum to minor league hitting coordinator, making her the first woman to work in that role for an MLB club.
Goodrum's official title is coordinator of hitting development initiatives. She previously served as the organisation's coordinator of integrative sports performance.
"We've seen it work for almost four years with Sara in our organisation working very closely with our players and our coaches," Brewers president of baseball operations David Stearns told MLB.com.
"I think we've seen that because of her talent and her skill set, she is trusted and respected."
Goodrum was an outfielder with the Oregon softball team from 2012-15.
Brewers vice president of minor league operations, Tom Flanagan, said: "Being able to observe her working around our hitters, it's not like she's coming in from some other department where she had no other interaction with our player development staff.
"She's been right there, kind of in the forefront, working with our hitters to some degree on different aspects in the past. And I think her skillset is very unique."
Flanagan added. "It gives her a very different perspective, in terms of different training techniques she probably has a lot of experience with that she feels she can implement and help re-establish our hitting curriculum, and help our hitters train better and be better throughout our system.
"Just seeing her work from afar, all of our hitting coaches and player development staff definitely have that familiarity and think that she can really impact the hitting apparatus here."
Earlier this month, the Red Sox hired Bianca Smith to serve as a minor-league coach, making her the first Black woman to coach in professional baseball.
Other female coaches include the Giants' Alyssa Nakken, the Yankees' Rachel Balkovec, and the Cubs' Rachel Folden.
The Marlins made Kim Ng the first female general manager in MLB history in November.
