Rachel Balkovec will manage the Low-A team for the New York Yankees this season, making her the first female skipper in affiliated professional baseball, according to a report by The Athletic.

Balkovec, who joined the Yankees as a minor league hitting coach in November 2019, will lead the minor league Tampa Tarpons, according to The Athletic.

A 34-year-old from Omaha, Nebraska, Balkovec was a minor league strength and conditioning coordinator and coach for the St. Louis Cardinals from 2011 to '15, then switched to the Houston Astros as Latin American strength and conditioning coordinator. She's also worked with the Dutch national baseball and softball teams.

Balkovec started as a softball catcher at Creighton, then transferred to New Mexico and received a degree in 2009 with a major in exercise science. Two years later, she got a masters in sports management from LSU.

"I view my path as an advantage," Balkovec told The Associated Press in 2019. "I had to do probably much more than maybe a male counterpart, but I like that because I'm so much more prepared for the challenges that I might encounter."

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.