Major League Baseball’s first female coach is heading to Cleveland.
Alyssa Nakken, who was promoted to a full-time coaching role with the San Francisco Giants in 2020, has accepted a position with the Cleveland Guardians, a league source confirmed to The Athletic. Nakken will work as an assistant in player development according to Steven Rissotto, who first reported Nakken’s departure from San Francisco.
Nakken, 34, became the first woman to coach on the field in a regular-season MLB game when she filled in for first base coach Antoan Richardson after he was ejected in the third inning of a game against the San Diego Padres on April 12, 2022. She made history again in 2023 when she interviewed for the Giants’ vacant managerial position.
“Manager and/or bench coach positions are two that my interests gravitate towards at this point in time,” Nakken said after coaching her first full season in 2020.
After starring as a first baseman for Sacramento State’s softball team from 2009-12, Nakken joined the Giants as an intern in their baseball operations department in 2014.
Nakken joined the Giants’ coaching staff full-time when Gabe Kapler was the team’s manager and also spent one season as part of Bob Melvin’s 11-person coaching staff. Other coaches who’ve left the Giants this offseason include hitting coaches Justin Viele and Pedro Guerrero (who went to the Texas Rangers and Miami Marlins, respectively) and pitching coach Bryan Price. With the Guardians, Nakken will once again work with two former Giants coaches, Craig Albernaz and Kai Correa.
(Photo: Lachlan Cunningham / Getty Images)
