Giants' Alyssa Nakken first woman to interview for MLB manager job

Giants’ Alyssa Nakken becomes first woman to interview for MLB manager position

Alyssa Nakken smiles while wearing a baseball cap with sunglasses perched on it.

Oct. 16, 2023 9:42 AM PT

Alyssa Nakken has made baseball history again.

More than three years after becoming the first woman on a Major League Baseball coaching staff and 18 months after becoming the first woman to coach on the field during an MLB game, the San Francisco Giants assistant coach is the first woman to interview for a major league managerial position.

Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi confirmed to the Associated Press on Sunday night that Nakken had a first-round interview last week as the team searches for a replacement for fired manager Gabe Kapler. Nakken, 33, and husband Robert Abel are expecting their first child, a girl, in February.

A former softball standout at first base for Sacramento State, Nakken joined the Giants in 2014 as an intern in baseball operations and was named an assistant coach by Kapler six years later. At the time, Kapler said Nakken would assist the rest of the coaching staff on the field, as well as working toward “fostering a clubhouse culture that promotes high performance through, among other attributes, a deep sense of collaboration and team.”

On April 13, 2022, Nakken made more history. After first-base coach Antoan Richardson was ejected during the third inning of the Giants’ game against the San Diego Padres, Nakken took his place on the field. She had previously coached first base during some spring training games, and Kapler said at the time that Nakken had been working with Richardson in preparation for such an occurrence.

The helmet she wore that day was sent to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., to be added to its permanent display.

“Obviously there’s a historical nature to it,” Nakken said at the time. “But again, this is my job.”

Kapler was fired by the Giants on Sept. 29, two years after being named National League manager of the year, after failing to lead the team to the playoffs for the second straight season. Nakken is one of several candidates, both internal and external to the organization, for the opening.

Former San Francisco player Aubrey Huff has taken to social media to voice his objection to Nakken receiving an interview for the position.

“I criticize the @SFGiants interviewing Alyssa Nakken for manager when there are thousands of qualified men that have decades of experience in @MLB,” Huff, a member of the Giants’ 2010 and 2012 World Series champion teams, posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. “The amount of low-T…feminized beta cucks calling me sexist is exactly why America is no longer a respected global superpower.”

Huff expressed similar sentiments when Nakken was hired as an assistant coach in 2020.