When the Miami Marlins bested the Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday, Kim Ng became the first female general manager to lead a Major League Baseball team into the playoffs.
And while the Marlins' postseason was short lived — ending Wednesday night after a loss to the Philadelphia Phillies — it marked a major milestone for Ng. In just three seasons as the Marlins' top executive, Ng took what had been one of the lowest-ranked teams in its division to the postseason for only the fourth time in franchise history.
Ng was hired in late 2020 by then-Marlins CEO and part-owner Derek Jeter. It made her the first-ever woman general manager — not only in professional baseball, but in the four major North American men's sports — and the second person of Asian descent to become an MLB GM.
Her hiring followed 30 years of experience in the MLB, including with the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers, two of the winningest teams in the league. Ng had also interviewed for other GM roles at least five times.
When she joined the Marlins, the team was facing serious struggles, including the loss of big-name players, low attendance and a limited budget. But Jeter knew that Ng, who had been the Yankees' assistant GM during three straight World Series-winning seasons when he played with the team, was up to the task.
"Kim was the first person I called," Jeter told the "Today" show in 2021 of Ng's hiring. "She was the only person I called."
The 2023 MLB season was Ng's first full year without Jeter in the Marlins' front office, after the former Yankees star stepped down as CEO and a shareholder of the team in February 2022.
