The San Francisco Giants are taking a look at Alyssa Nakken for their open manager job.
Nakken interviewed with the Giants to become their next manager in recent days, according to The Athletic's Andrew Baggarly. That makes her the first woman to formally interview for a manager job anywhere in Major League Baseball.
Nakken was first hired by former Giants manager Gabe Kapler — who was fired by the organization last month — in 2020. That made Nakken the first female full-time coach in the league. Nakken then stepped in to replace Giants assistant Antoan Richardson after he was ejected in a game in April, which made her the first woman in league history to coach on the field in a regular season game. Nakken first joined the Giants in their baseball operations department as an intern in 2014.
While Nakken is the only woman coaching in the major leagues full time, there are several other women in notable positions throughout professional baseball, especially at the minor league level. Rachel Balkovec led the New York Yankees’ Low-A affiliate for the past two seasons, for example, and the Miami Marlins hired general manager Kim Ng in 2020 — which made her the first woman to work in a general manager role in major men’s professional sports in North America.
The Giants fired Kapler last month with just a few games left in the regular season. While he led them to their winningest season in franchise history in 2021, the Giants quickly fell out of contention over the past two seasons under his leadership. The team went 79-83 this season, the fourth under Kapler.
The Giants are one of several teams with managerial openings this offseason. The Cleveland Guardians, New York Mets and Los Angeles Angels are also searching. According to ESPN, the team has also interviewed bench coach Kai Correa and third base coach Mark Hallberg for the opening. The organization is expected to look outside of the team for more interviews, too. It's unclear how far along they are in the interview process.
