‘Amazing opportunity’: Nuts’ Hernandez breaks barriers as Minor Leagues’ first Latina GM
Growing up, Veronica Hernandez’s only exposure to baseball was watching on TV with her godfather.
She said she never understood it. She would just sit and watch as a way to bond with him.
“Back then, it was pretty boring,” she said.
She watched the sport, but did she play baseball? Softball even?
“That’s the million dollar question, I never played softball or baseball,” Hernandez said. “The furthest I’ve ever gotten was probably high school PE class for baseball.”
Despite starting out with little knowledge of the game, Hernandez’s journey through the ranks of Minor League Baseball organizations has given her a wealth of experience and appreciation for the sport overall, but more importantly, the minors.
When the Seattle Mariners announced on May 11 that they named Hernandez general manager of the Modesto Nuts, it served as a testament of more than seven years of hard work and learning since graduating college with a bachelor’s degree in sports media with a minor in photography.
“Veronica’s determination, hard work and love for the sport has shined these past four years (in Modesto) and we couldn’t be more excited to have her lead the Modesto Nuts into the future,” Trevor Gooby, the Mariners senior vice president of ballpark operations, said in last month’s news release.
Hernandez is also breaking barriers. She is now the first Latina general manager in Minor League Baseball history and is the only female to be named general manager of The Modesto Nuts.
She joins Arkansas Travelers GM Sophie Ozier and Tacoma Rainiers Director of Baseball Operations & Merchandise Ashley Schutt as women in the Mariners’ farm system who are leading divisions with their respective teams. Out of 120 Minor League Baseball teams, Hernandez is one of three Latin American general managers and one of seven women in the position.
“When I first took on the job, I was like, ‘Hey, out of curiosity, how many are in these shoes?’ and that’s when I got the stat and it’s just like, ‘Whoa, I did not see that coming.’” Hernandez said.
The dream job
When Hernandez talked with former Nuts General Manager Zach Brockman during the 2018 California League All-Star Game, an event she organized, he asked her what she wanted to do.
“I want to run my own marketing department.’” Hernandez answered.
It was a dream the Connecticut native had since high school. After graduating from Ithaca College in central New York, she set her sights on somehow finding her way into a career in sports marketing.
The journey started with an internship with the Danbury Westerners of the New England Collegiate Baseball League, which quickly grew into an intern role with Hudson Valley Valley Renegades, then minor league short season affiliate in the Tampa Bay Rays organization. After a trip to the Winter Meetings, Hernandez walked away with her first exposure to an organization on the West Coast.
“At that point, all of my supervisors were like, ‘You gotta go to the Winter Meetings, you gotta go,’” Hernandez said. “I was like, ‘Are you crazy? The investment on that is thousands of dollars. I’m this broke postgraduate (kid), I cannot afford that.’ But they’re like, ‘You won’t regret it,’ and I took that leap of faith.”
In January 2016, Hernandez took a corporate event planner role with the Arkansas Travelers, which was part of the Angels organization at the time. After gaining logistics experience with the Travelers, she took on a role with the Lancaster Jethawks, which gave her the opportunity to organize all aspects of the All-Star Game from the game itself and VIP luncheons to goody bags.
This also gave her the chance to interact with people from all over the California League, including Brockman (whom she first met briefly in 2015), which turned into an offer she couldn’t turn down.
“In October of 2018, I became the Modesto Nuts’ director of marketing and promotions,” Hernandez said. “It was awesome to be placed in that position. A lot of hard work had gone into that.
“From there, people would ask me like, ‘Oh, what’s next?’ And I was just like, ‘I want to be the best director of marketing that any sports team has ever seen.”
In the role, she oversaw all aspects of marketing, including website content, social media, community outreach, in-game promotions. The COVID-19 pandemic hit during her stint, and the Nuts had to furlough what Hernandez said was “a good percentage” of the staff. Those who were still on board had to pick up roles in new areas.
“I got to learn a lot from different departments,” Hernandez said. “I think that helped in the sense of learning how the business operated and where there were successes and failures and what was needed from the different departments to have overall organizational success.”
In January, she was promoted to assistant general manager, a role she held for just a few months before she accepted the position as general manager. “It’s a whole other door that is opened up, which is an amazing opportunity. Not just for myself, but every Latina that comes thereafter.”
Making an impact
She’s learned every step of the way.
“I think the biggest takeaway that I keep on like reflecting back on is barriers,” Hernandez said. “I think my mind doesn’t focus on the barriers. It just focuses on the work, the project, the job that needs to get done. As long as I’m pushing that forward, somehow these barriers seem to keep breaking.”
Hernandez doesn’t know when she’ll actually get to process the accomplishment. She said she’s focused on “the now” and working on keeping things running smoothly in the organization. In addition to coordinating team travel and game-day operations during the season, Hernandez is also in charge of non-baseball events. She said even though the regular season ends Sept. 11, they are busy until November.
“I’m very much focused on what’s going on at the moment for the organization. If I am the first-time Latina GM, it’s a surreal moment, but I have to remember I have all of this paperwork in front of me to get done,” Hernandez said. “I’m honored to have opened that door, but I don’t think I’ve actually been able to have the chance to sit down and absorb what that means.”
Maybe she’ll reflect around Christmas.
She does get reminders of how much she has done — in text messages from her mother, who is not well-versed on baseball or the ins and outs of a front office.
“She’s now grasping what I’ve been doing,” Hernandez said. “Not to say that she didn’t know that I was working hard and grinding, but I think because now she’s seeing a lot of news articles and things of that nature, she’s taking that in.
“So every time I see that message from my mom, it makes me realize that I’ve made waves in her world, and I think that’s a proud moment to be making my parents proud. They’ve done so much and given up so much for me, so I’m very happy to make them proud.”
This story was originally published June 9, 2022 at 8:18 AM.
