Red Sox hiring Bianca Smith as minor league coach, making her first Black woman to coach in pro baseball history

Bianca Smith will work primarily with minor-league position players in Fort Myers.Jim Davis/Globe Staff

The Red Sox are hiring Bianca Smith as a minor league coach.

She will be the first Black woman to serve as a professional baseball coach in the sport’s history, Major League Baseball confirmed.

Smith will work with the minor league players in Fort Myers, Fla., and her focus will mainly involve position players.

“She was a great candidate coming in,” said Red Sox vice president of player development Ben Crockett, who helped spearhead the hire. “She’s had some really interesting experiences and has been passionate about growing her skill set and development herself.”

Smith comes with a track record: She played softball at Dartmouth College (2010-12), was director of baseball operations and a graduate assistant at Case Western Reserve (2013-17), and served as an assistant coach at the University of Dallas (2018).

Bianca SmithCourtesy/Carroll University (Custom credit)

Smith’s major league experience goes back to 2017, when she interned for the Texas Rangers in their baseball operations department. She spent time working at Major League Baseball in amateur administration before interning in the Cincinnati Reds baseball operations department.

Smith currently serves as assistant baseball coach and hitting coordinator at Carroll University in Wisconsin, a position she’s held since 2019.

Last season, for the first time in history, MLB had an on-field female coach in the San Francisco Giants’ Alyssa Nakken. A few others were hired as on-field coaches at the minor league level: Rachel Balkovec (New York Yankees), Rachel Folden (Chicago Cubs), and Christina Whitlock (St. Louis Cardinals).

Smith, as a Black woman, breaks a significant barrier.

“It’s a meaningful, meaningful thing for the organization,” Crockett said.

The Red Sox will officially announce Smith’s hire in January.