Sara Goodrum Named MLB's 1st Female Minor League Hitting Coordinator by Brewers

The Milwaukee Brewers announced Thursday that Sara Goodrum is their new minor league hitting coordinator, marking the first time a woman has held that position with an MLB team.

According to MLB.com's Adam McCalvy, Goodrum has actually been working in that role since October.

The 27-year-old will "oversee the Brewers’ hitting program throughout the organization, manage the hitting coaches at the team’s affiliates and, when the coronavirus pandemic fades, travel around the system to assist in player instruction," McCalvy wrote.

Goodrum has been working with the team since 2017 at its Sports Science and Integrative Sports Performance lab.

"I think [gender] is really a non-issue, where we’re at today in the game," said Brewers farm director Tom Flanagan. "Specifically, with [Goodrum], there is a familiarity with our hitters. She has been around the batting cage for the last couple of years, so there are relationships there, there’s knowledge of what we’re trying to do and what she’s trying to do. I think it’s kind of a natural progression for her."

Goodrum played Division I softball at the University of Oregon and got her master's degree in exercise and sports science at the University of Utah. Per McCalvy, she said the significance of her promotion with the Brewers did not sink in until Kim Ng was hired by the Miami Marlins, becoming the first woman to be named general manager in MLB:

"I was just like, 'OK, let’s go. This is going to be awesome. I get to think about hitting.' There were some people that were kind of like, 'This is new and maybe groundbreaking in the space.' I didn’t really think about it at first. It took me a little bit to process."

Beyond Goodrum and Ng, several other women have recently joined the MLB ranks. Alyssa Nakken is an assistant coach with the San Francisco Giants, and Rachel Folden and Rachel Balkovec are hitting coaches with the Chicago Cubs and New York Yankees minor league systems, respectively.

In addition, Bianca Smith joined the Boston Red Sox as a minor league hitting coach, becoming the first Black woman to coach professional baseball. 

Goodrum's hire was announced with the remainder of the team's minor league staff for the upcoming season.