PORTLAND, Maine — The Portland Sea Dogs will have a new coach suiting up when the team kicks off their season opener in April.
Katie Krall is the Sea Dogs' first female coach, and only the second hired by their parent team, the Boston Red Sox. Krall will be a development coach for the AA team in Portland and will act as a liaison between players, on-field staff, and the Red Sox front office.
Krall is helping to run a "Winter Warmup" camp in Florida right now. She said she's looking forward to bringing a better level of communication to the field.
"I think being a woman and having a different approach with the way that I transmit information, being very cognizant of how I individualize when I speak to different players because each guy is different and responds to different stimuli in his own way," Krall said.
She recalled a conversation with the development manager for the Red Sox team, Chris Stasio, in which she asked whether a coaching position was even something to consider.
"I was even candid with Chris and I said, 'Do you genuinely think someone like me could be a candidate for this role? Just give it to me straight.' He said, 'Yes, with the way that we want to leverage the information that we have in the front office and bring it to the field. Let’s have you talk to some other folks and see if there’s a fit on both sides.' So previously I had never considered being in uniform, even though there are many women who are now taking that route, I had never thought about it personally," Krall explained.
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She joins Bianca Smith as a Red Sox hire. Smith is the first African American woman to serve as a professional baseball coach.
"I do think at a point we will get to a place where women will just be hired, it won't necessarily result in a Zoom call with reporters, but I think that would be phenomenal. I think that's the ultimate goal is that it doesn't become newsworthy anymore," Krall said.
Krall is also studying, along with landing her dream job. She's hoping to finish her MBA in the spring.
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