By themselves, each has an impressive story.
Mayu Fielding started with the Pirates as an administrative assistant in 2007 and quickly moved into her current role as education coordinator, helping foreign players transition to life in America. Kinza Baad graduated from the University of Virginia in 2017 and is in her fourth year as a scouting assistant. Astrid DeGruchy does a little bit of everything, describing herself as the "air traffic controller" of the Pirates' international scouting department.
Together, they're writing an even more impressive and important story, one that's about their own talents and also the example they're setting for others.
"It's very exciting," Fielding said. "When I started here, I was probably the only woman in baseball, in this organization, for a while. There were women in other areas, but not in baseball. I'd often find myself in a room full of men.
"Now, there are more of us, we have important roles, and there are plenty of ways we can make an impact on people."
Fielding, Baad and DeGruchy are highlighted here because of their direct influence on baseball operations, but they're hardly the only talented women in the Pirates organization. It's also true that Major League Baseball must continue to diversify, whether we're talking about sex or skin color.
But considering it is March _ Women's History Month _ it's worth pausing and appreciating some of the special women the Pirates have working in baseball operations.
"For us to be great as an organization, we have to build the best baseball operations staff possible and build a better one than our competitors," Pirates general manager Ben Cherington said. "If you're trying to do that while looking at only half the world's population, that would seem very limiting and wouldn't make much sense to me if we're trying to build the best staff possible."
