SAN FRANCISCO — Alyssa Nakken made history in 2020 when she became the first woman appointed to a Major League Baseball coaching staff. Now she’s making history again.
She’s believed to be the first woman to officially interview for a major-league managerial position.
Nakken was among the San Francisco Giants’ internal candidates to sit for a formal, first-round interview this past week, The Athletic has confirmed. Nakken joined bench coach Kai Correa and third base coach Mark Hallberg as members of the current coaching staff under initial consideration to replace Gabe Kapler, who was relieved of duties on Sept. 29 with a year remaining on his contract.
Nakken, 33, is among 13 coaches that Kapler assembled when putting together his staff prior to the 2020 season. She has spent the past four seasons working as an assistant coach with an emphasis on baserunning, outfield instruction and in-game preparation. She was considered a critical contributor as a dugout liaison to pinch hitters in 2021, when the Giants won a franchise-record 107 games while also setting a major-league record for pinch-hitting appearances (as well as a record-setting 18 pinch-hit home runs). On April 12, 2022, Nakken became the first woman to coach on the field in a major-league game, taking over in the first base coaching box in the third inning against the San Diego Padres after an umpire had ejected first base coach Antoan Richardson.
A former all-conference softball player at Sacramento State, Nakken initially joined the Giants as a baseball operations intern in 2014 and had transitioned to a hybrid role within the front office that included event logistics, business development and coordinating health and wellness initiatives before Kapler invited her to join his coaching staff.
Kapler also had interviewed Rachel Balkovec, a hitting instructor in the New York Yankees system, for Nakken’s role. Balkovec remained with the Yankees and just completed her second season as manager of the organization’s Low-A Tampa Tarpons affiliate. Ronnie Gajownik, a former softball standout at the University of South Florida as well as the U.S. women’s national baseball team, just completed her first season managing High-A Hillsboro Hops in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization.
And Kim Ng, the first female GM in major-league history, made sweeping changes in her third season with the Miami Marlins that helped the club advance to its first playoff appearance in a full season since 2003.
Nakken declined comment through the Giants but has said in the past that her career aspirations were to remain in uniform, to continue developing as a coach — and to work her way up the ladder.
“Manager and/or bench coach positions are two that my interests gravitate towards at this point in time,” Nakken said after completing her first season in 2020.
During that same interview, Nakken said she didn’t feel different from the other coaches on Kapler’s staff during her first season. She would return to the same mental baseline anytime she felt anxious.
“Every day, look to my left and look to my right and ask, ‘How can I help?’ That’s what I did,” Nakken said. “That eased the anxiety because I knew I could control that. I can’t control how somebody else feels but I can control how I respond to somebody. I can control how consistently I control my emotions through the ups and downs of a season. So I never felt different from the other coaches. I didn’t feel like the guys would treat me different. My mindset was that I respect these guys and if it does take them a while to come around to me, that’s fine. I have patience.”
Nakken continued to earn consistent praise from players in subsequent seasons.
“Alyssa has a problem-solving vantage point that hasn’t been influenced by years in professional baseball,” said Kapler, asked about Nakken after the 2020 season. “She’s just quite frankly excellent with people. She puts people at ease which allows them to open up and gives her tools to help people solve problems.”
Those people skills and qualities mirror what Giants president Farhan Zaidi sketched out last month while describing the ideal managerial candidate.
“We want somebody who can be an effective recruiter,” Zaidi said. “Like every organization, we want to build a brand of players wanting to come here and I think the manager is a big part of that.”
Nakken is currently involved in player acquisition of a different sort. Her husband, Robert Abel, announced on social media in August that the couple is expecting their first child in February. Nakken told the San Francisco Chronicle in August that she took a two-week hiatus from the team during her first trimester when morning sickness became especially acute. But she returned to full duties for the remainder of the season with minor alterations like remaining behind screens when doing on-field work.
“I’m grateful for some incredible women in my life who have families and have been able to continue to live true to who they are and what they want to do while accepting and appreciating the natural shifts that come with motherhood and raising a family,” Nakken told the Chronicle. “I don’t believe that what I do should be exactly what every female coach does who comes into this arena. But it’s so important to work with and for an organization and with leadership that is ultimately so supportive, and you truly believe that with every ounce of your being.
“It helps to not have to overthink or overplan or say, ‘OK, I need to do this and be back by this date.’ We have coaches having kids and they’re back in three days. I just physically won’t be able to do that.”
Or can she? Clearly, the Giants’ top decision makers think highly enough of Nakken that they are willing to raise the question.
The Giants were expected to widen their search to external candidates this week, although at least one name under consideration — former Giants hitting coach and current Texas Rangers offensive coordinator Donnie Ecker — remains involved in postseason play. Zaidi has said that his goal is to have a manager in place prior to the start of free agency in the first week of November.
(Photo of Nakken: Darren Yamashita / USA Today)
