Major League Baseball will have a female umpire this weekend for the first time in its history.
Minor league umpire Jen Pawol will work all three games of a doubleheader this weekend between the Miami Marlins and Atlanta Braves in Atlanta. The two teams play a doubleheader on Saturday, necessitating the callup of an extra umpire, as home plate umpires during doubleheader games do not work the other game of the doubleheader.
Jen Pawol gets the call!
— Minor League Baseball (@MiLB) August 6, 2025
This weekend, the Minor League ump will become the first woman to umpire in a regular season MLB game: https://t.co/XyJv3Fx1Kf pic.twitter.com/5mLakGdHH7
Pawol has been a full-time minor league umpire since 2017. She moved up the ladder quickly, and worked as the home plate umpire during the 2023 Triple-A Championship game.
Overall, Pawol is only the seventh female to work professionally as an umpire, but none of her six predecessors ever got the call to the MLB level. She has worked several spring training games before, but had not yet had the chance to work a regular season contest.
Pawol will get the chance to be behind home plate for Sunday’s series finale. Considering some of the poor performances we have seen from home plate umpires this season, it is entirely plausible that she will be an improvement over some of her more experienced colleagues.
