Marlins hire MLB’S first female GM
MIAMI — Kim Ng started her Major League Baseball career as an intern, and three decades later, she’s still on the rise while shattering ceilings.
Ng, 51, became the majors’ highest-ranking woman in baseball operations when she was hired Friday as general manager of the Marlins. She is believed to be the first female GM in the four major North American professional sports leagues, the Marlins said.
“I think this is the most noteworthy day for baseball since Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947,” said Richard Lapchick, an expert on race and gender in sports at the University of Central Florida.
Ng (pronounced Ang) won three World Series rings while spending 21 years in the front offices of theWhite Sox (1990-96), Yankees (1998-2001) and Dodgers (2002-11). She spent the last nine years with MLB as a senior vice president.
Ng started her baseball career as a White Sox intern and rose to become assistant director of baseball operations.
She worked for the American League for one year and then joined the Yankees, becoming the youngest assistant general manager in MLB at 29, and only the second woman to attain that position with a major-league club. She was the
Dodgers’ vice president and assistant general manager.
Ng is also a groundbreaking Asian American at the top ranks of her profession, joining Farhan Zaidi, the Giants’ president of baseball operations. She becomes the fifth person to hold the Marlins’ top position in baseball operations and succeeds Michael Hill, who was not retained after the 2020 season.
“After decades of determination, it is the honor of my career to lead the Miami Marlins,” Ng said in a statement. “When I got into this business, it seemed unlikely a woman would lead a major-league team, but I amdogged in the pursuit of my goals. My goal is now to bring championship baseball to Miami.”
Marlins CEO Derek Jeter played for the Yankees when Ng worked for them.
“We look forward to Kim bringing a wealth of knowledge and championship-level experience to the Miami Marlins,” Jeter said in a statement. “Her leadership of our baseball operations team will play amajor role on our path toward sustained success.”
Ng joins a long-suffering franchise that achieved surprising progress in Year 3 of Jeter’s rebuilding effort, reaching the playoffs for the first time since 2003 and sweeping the Cubs in the wild-card round. The Marlins were swept by the Braves in the division series.