New york Mets hire Elizabeth Benn as first female director of Major League Operations

On Sunday, first reported by SNY, the New York Mets made history by hiring Elizabeth Benn as director of major league operations, making her the franchise’s highest ranking female baseball operations employee in history. Benn has many great credentials that make her qualified for this very prestigious position as she has worked for the Major League’s since 2017 after completion of her master’s degree in philosophy at Columbia.

She has participated in roles in labor relations, youth programs, and baseball operations. In a male-dominated sport, women have started to take a step further in more prominent roles over the last few years such as the Miami Marlins manager Kim Ng, and the Mets hometown rivals in the New York Yankees hiring Rachel Balkovec as the first woman to manage a minor league team in the league’s history.

This is the second consecutive offseason the Mets have revamped their front office after they removed former manager Jared Porter last season. He was fired over sexually explicit text messages he sent to a female reporter in 2016 as a member of the Chicago Cubs. The Mets also hired Gretchen Aucoin as minor league coach this offseason, making her the first on-field female coach in the team’s history.

Women in analytics have taken part, minor league operations, and player performance, but none have held a title as powerful as being director of a franchise, and that’s what Benn has done. Benn has been a lecturer at Lehman College and was a pitcher who became the first woman to play in the New York City Metro Baseball League, which is a recreational league comprised of former college baseball players.