Chicago Cubs: Will women ever take the field in MLB?

Chicago Cubs: Removed all liability with the rules

That’s why MLB has been taking baby-steps toward the subject and legally removed all liability of themselves by adding a note to the official rules and hiring female baseball coordinators on staff.  As John Keilman of the Chicago Tribune reported: through MLB, there are events to try and get more women into baseball, more colleges with women teams and more scholarships for women who can play the game.

"“Right now the focus for us is just trying to develop a pipeline, develop these athletes and go from there,” said Sarah Padove, MLB’s senior coordinator of baseball and softball development. “We’re really focusing on this age group, seeing what happens, but we know we’ve got the talent. The focus is to get more of these female athletes playing college baseball if that’s what they want to do.”"

Maybe that’s what they want to do, but only if they are going to get the chance to take a crack at the Show. That’s what’s missing out of all this ‘For Love of the Game’ concern for women in baseball: a professional contract at the end of the road. But alas, there’s nothing on the table and MLB says that it’s not their fault.

Really?

Can MLB make teams sign women? Absolutely! MLB has the power through incentives to help facilitate some signings. They could also fine teams that don’t consider women. In 2015, Melissa Mayeux of France was the first woman to be added onto MLB’s international registration list, which allowed her to be signed by an MLB team.

Still, no woman has made it to the Show.  MLB has not done anything to encourage clubs to make that next step for women and have not created any professional league for women, so some have turned to coach in MLB to get closer to the field.