Who is Jen Pawol? Closer look at the career of female umpire on the verge of making MLB history

Jen Pawol is about to make history. The female umpire has already done so, but is expected to continue doing so as she inches closer to umpiring a regular season MLB game. Thus far, she's made it to AAA and is slated to work a Spring Training game soon.

Jen Pawol, who will also be promoted to AAA crew chief, is angling to do something very few have ever done. In that attempt, she was one of 24 umpires who will be announced to do MLB spring training games. If she does well, she very well could be seen in a regular season game sooner rather than later.

Pawol was only promoted to AAA last spring, so she hasn't been up long. She has, however, been on a pretty impressive trajectory to have just gotten that and now be on the verge of being at the big-league level. The umpire began her career in the Gulf Coast League in 2016 and has almost made it to the top in just over seven years.

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Can Jen Pawol become first female MLB umpire?

The MLB hasn't exactly been kind to female umpires in history, making what Jen Pawol is about to potentially do even more exciting. The first female ump was Pam Postema, who was in the minors for 13 years first.

Can Jen Pawol make it to an MLB crew?

When she did ump an MLB game in 1989, she was eventually moved back down and didn't have a contract six years later, so it was a very rough go then. Since then, no one else has done it.

Even if she doesn't make it into the MLB regular season, Pawol knows she's achieved something special. She said via The Athletic:

“No one can take (getting to) Triple A away from me. I’m three months in and no matter what happens, I can continue to make a positive impact on the game, and that’s really exciting.”

Ria Cortesi is the last woman to umpire even a spring game, and that happened all the way back in 2007 and she didn't make it into regular season action.