Women’s game growing in Rockies organization and beyond

As the 2025 MLB season winds to a close, it also concludes the fourth season Emily Glass has spent as the manager of scouting operations and scout for the Colorado and Wyoming area for the Colorado Rockies.

The Rockies hired Glass in 2022 when she became the first woman scout in the organization’s history. Her resume is incredibly impressive as she’s traveled the world scouting, learning the game, and even coaching in places like Japan. In her decade-plus career around baseball, she’s witnessed and been part of the growth of women in baseball.

After eight years in MLB, including time with Miami and Colorado, Glass spoke about her experiences in the game as part of a panel following the screening of the women’s baseball film “See Her Be Her” on Sept. 20 in Denver. The film chronicles the inspirational fight of women to play baseball across the globe, culminating in the 2024 Women’s Baseball World Cup. The women face barriers and lack of funding and opportunities to play the game, as well as discrimination of being women in a game dominated by men.

During a challenging stretch of losing seasons at the major league level in Colorado, Glass represents a bright spot of growth in the organization as she’s found a home with the Rockies with supporters who want to see more women in the game.

“With the Rockies, it’s been incredible for me,” she said, “but eight years ago, if you ask me some of the stories I’ve dealt with being in the clubhouse and those you know environments, there are definitely some more questionable things, but there are allies, and the way that I’ve seen them grow and become more charismatic and boisterous in supporting me and others in the last five years has been incredible.”

Early in her career, Glass came through the MLB Diversity Pipeline Scout Development Program, which was created to help women and minority candidates break into scouting. It’s often that network that creates connections where women and people of color then help other people through the doors they have opened to diversify the game and make it better.

“With the Rockies, I had an African American male champion me and bring me here in [Vice President and Assistant General Manager of Scouting] Danny Montgomery,” Glass said. “That scout development program has kind of allowed me to lock arms with a variety of minority men in the game that want to bring women into the space. And there’s white men that are allies too.”

Women in the Rockies Organization

Glass’s hiring followed the path the Rockies have stayed true to since getting Linda Alvarado to sign on as part of the original ownership group in 1992 in a trailblazing move that made Alvarado the first woman included in a bid for an MLB team and the first Latino owner of an MLB franchise. Add Sue Ann McClaren, vice president of ticket sales, operations and services to the list. McClaren has been with the Rockies since October 1992, months before they played their first game. She started in ticket sales before being named vice president on Dec. 1, 1995, becoming the Rockies’ first female officer and one of the first female VPs in MLB.

Glass was joined on the panel by USA Baseball women’s manager, coordinator of player development in Latin America for the A’s and Colorado resident Veronica Alvarez, “See Her Be Her” director, producer and photographer Jean Fruth, the Rockies director of marketing and advertising Traci Abeyta.

Abeyta, who has been with the Rockies in various roles since 2000, has seen a lot of change and credits McClaren for being a huge part of the Rockies pioneering vision for women in the organization and

“There are a lot more women now than there were before and in leadership roles. I was fortunate to have a role model, and a leader who was incredible, and it’s changed over the course of time,” Abeyta said in her experience in the business side of the organization. “I don’t feel discriminated against at all in my position. I definitely feel that now more than ever, I have a seat at the table and everybody is equal. That doesn’t mean that there’s, you know, opinions out there and people maybe look differently, but I feel just within our walls that, yeah, I’m equal.”

Women on the Field

Alvarez is a huge reason women’s baseball is growing. She played for the USA Women’s Baseball team and has managed it since 2019. On top of being named the inaugural girls’ baseball ambassador for MLB in 2024 and countless other titles, Alvarez also coaches the A’s club’s baseball academy in La Victoria, Dominican Republic.

“With the A’s, I am on the field in uniform, and fully supported there,” she said. “We went from 2019 when I was the only female on field in all the professional baseball, to now we have, I would say, 13 women in professional baseball, coaches in uniform. And within the A’s organization itself, we have three women coaches in uniform.

“So that’s been really incredible to see how we’ve changed the environment better,” she continued. “It’s a welcome disruption. We don’t want to change the game. We love the game, but we want to bring a welcome disruption to it and I feel very supported.”

Alvarez even coached while pregnant before having her first baby in August. In a true act of inclusion, the A’s tailored a one-of-a-kind maternity uniform for Alvarez, really proving that they believe women belong in the game.

“It’s a very cool organization to be a part of,” Alvarez said. “They’re all sort of brothers to me and have allowed me to grow in my role as well.”

“See Her Be Her” made its debut on MLB Network during the 2024 World Series. Since then, the film has traveled the country for screenings, and it’s also available on Amazon Prime, giving more people an opportunity to see it. Being a minority can increase the scrutiny women face on the field, in the front office and in baseball operations, but the more opportunities and visibility they have, the better it gets.

“[There is] a lot of pressure on us in that MLB space because we’re representing more than just, you know, our job is what we’re good at. We’re trying to kind of open doors for future women, but something we all welcome right in that space. But creating that belief that we belong in the game is part of our job, whether it’s in creating our job description or not.”

Building a Women’s Network

Every December, there are various programs during Winter Meetings like Take the Field, which help women get their foot in the door in different areas like baseball operations, coaching, scouting, analytics, international operations and more. Glass has attended the event and believes those kinds of programs are key to recruiting more women and keeping them in the game. Several players in “See Her Be Her,” including USA Baseball star and Savanna Banana Kelsey Whitmore, talk about the isolation they sometimes feel as women in baseball. Glass has felt it and hopes things are changing.

“The biggest thing we have to do is build that network,” Glass said. “Because just like Kelsey and many shared, there’s a loneliness that can settle in at times and it’s all about building those relationships.”

With the Rockies and around MLB, Glass is building those relationships. The pipeline to bring more women into the game is expanding. Look no further than the Rockies staff directory, which lists three women vice presidents, as well as numerous women in several departments.

That’s definitely progress.

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Women’s game growing in Rockies organization and beyond

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