On Nov. 13, Kim Ng was hired as the Miami Marlins general manager. She became the first woman and the first Asian-American general manager in the history of Major League Baseball (MLB). Some fans, for good reason, were wondering why it took so long for a woman or Asian-American general manager. If the MLB players are becoming more diverse, then why are the front-office positions staying the same? In order for the MLB to be truly diverse, there need to be more people of color and women in management and coaching positions.

In 1999, the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball created a rule called the “Selig Rule,” named after then-commissioner Bud Selig. The rule states that all teams need to consider hiring women and/or a person of color for every front-office position. By not requiring teams to interview people of color or women, there will continue to be a diversity problem in the front offices of MLB.

According to baseball-reference.com, there have only been 18 African-Americans to manage teams with 14 of those coming since the rule was put in place. Since the rule was put forth, there have been 211 managers hired and 957 total managers in the history of baseball. Meaning that in MLB history, about 1% of managers have been African-American and only 6% since the rule took effect.

Now, when it comes to the general managers, the person in charge of hiring and firing people as well as trades, there has been 357 total in MLB history with 136 of them having been hired since the rule was implemented. Out of those 357, only one has been Hispanic, while there are 15 total Hispanic managers in the history of baseball. The numbers are nothing compared to the number of Hispanic players which make up roughly 20% of players, according to chicagotribune.com.

According to espn.com, 44.3% of coaches are people of color, and the San Francisco Giants recently hired Alyssa Nakken, the first woman coach in baseball history. Nevertheless, if people of color and women are getting coaching positions then why are they not getting the front-office positions? The answer is, the “Selig Rule.” If the league required teams to interview at least one woman and at least one person of color for front-office positions, then teams would realize that there are sometimes better choices than the ones they originally thought. The fact remains the same, if there is no rule resolving the issue then teams can and will get away with not hiring women and people of color.