The Milwaukee Brewers have promoted Sara Goodrum to minor league hitting coordinator.
Brewers vice president of minor league operations Tom Flanagan says that “to our knowledge, she would be the first” woman to hold that position in an MLB organization.
Goodrum’s official new title with the Brewers is coordinator for hitting development initiatives. She’ll be the team’s lead developmental hitting coach, overseeing how hitters within the team’s minor league system are trained.
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After Brewers beat reporter Adam McCalvy tweeted the news of Goodrum’s promotion, Jake McKinley, the team’s director of player development initiatives, responded: “Great news for us, and great news for Sara! She is an elite technician of hitting, has great feel for people, and is an awesome human being.”
Great news for us, and great news for Sara! She is an elite technician of hitting, has great feel for people, and is an awesome human being. https://t.co/9Zbyug7mB1
— Jake McKinley (@mckinleyjake12) January 28, 2021
According to her LinkedIn, Goodrum is based in Phoenix, where the Brewers hold spring training.
From 2012 to 2015, Goodrum played softball for the University of Oregon, where she studied human physiology. She earned a master’s degree in exercise and sports science from the University of Utah, before joining the Brewers, where she’s spent the last three seasons in the team’s sports science department.
In 2019, the New York Yankees hired Rachel Balkovec as a minor league hitting coach. According to ESPN, she’s believed to be the first female hitting coach hired by an MLB club. The Chicago Cubs hired Rachel Folden as a minor league hitting instructor the same year.
In 2020, Alyssa Nakken joined the San Francisco Giants as the first female hitting coach on the major league level, and this year, the Boston Red Sox added Bianca Smith to their staff, making her the first Black woman to coach minor league baseball. Smith is a former hitting coordinator at Carroll University in Waukesha.
The Brewers announced the new role for Goodrum, along with the rest of their 2021 developmental coaching staff, on Thursday morning. Junior Spivey, who previously played for the Brewers, will join the organization as its coordinator of baseball diversity initiatives.
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