MLB Umpire Jen Pawol: Baseball America’s 2025 Trailblazer Of The Year
Image credit: Jen Pawol (Photo by Rayni Shiring/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
When Jen Pawol took the field as an MLB umpire at Atlanta’s Truist Park on Aug. 9, it made history. For the first time, a female umpire worked a regular season MLB game. For the first time, the dream of a number of women before her had been achieved.
It was a big day for Pawol, and it was just as large for those who went before her, and for those who will come after her.
For years there have been women who have dreamed of umpiring in the major leagues, and for a very long time, that was an unobtainable dream.
When Perry Barber went to umpire school in 1981, she convinced her twin sister to come along to ensure Perry wouldn’t be the only woman at the school. Barber has umpired for 42 years since, with MLB spring training and pro games under her belt. But when she was coming up, the hurdles were built high. Umpiring in the major leagues seemed impossible.
“By the time (Pawol) entered pro ball in 2016, things had changed from when I started. There was active resistance when I started,” Barber said.
And that is part of what made Pawol’s debut so special. She has grinded out nearly a decade of work in the minor leagues.
She has climbed through a system designed to weed out all but the most devoted umpires. Umpires bounce from town to town, week after week, driving from one city to another with only one fellow umpire as your lone ally at each ballpark, night after night.
The best days are ones where you go unnoticed. On the worst, you are the focus of every player, coach and fan at the park. Much like the players, even the best umpires have to learn the craft over years of work, but a missed call for an umpire tends to stick out much more than a hitter striking out.
By the accounts of multiple people who have worked with Pawol over the years, she embraced the grind. She just wanted to be the best umpire possible.
“From the moment I met her, there was something that struck me,” Barber said. “She’s very focused and dedicated. She had in her mind a goal and she set out to reach it.”
Pawol’s main goal is still ahead. She is one of a number of Triple-A umpires who are on the callup list, which means they are brought up to work MLB games when MLB umpires need days off. Umpires can spend several years on that list, but the top performers are the ones who get the call to become full-time MLB umpires.
That day is still in the future for Pawol, but she has now worked 18 MLB games over the final two months of the 2025 season, including six behind the plate. That first series drew plenty of attention, but a few weeks later she was just a part of the normal umpire rotations.
That’s another sign of how the game is changing. The day is coming when seeing a female umpire in the major leagues may not even raise an eyebrow.
When Barber started umpiring, she was generally one of one or two women umpiring. When Pawol started, she was often the only female umpire in her league. Now, there are nine women umpiring in the minor leagues.
MLB facility rules adopted in 2021 ensure that there are locker rooms for female staff at every minor league stadium in affiliated baseball. Just a few years before that, there were few, if any.
“We were an afterthought. We’re not an afterthought anymore. We’re fully integrated into the umpire universe. It’s about damn time,” Barber said. “That’s what excites me. It’s becoming normalized now instead of women sticking out like sore thumbs. Now we’re just part of the scenery.”
That struck Barber in the moment. She drove up from Florida to Atlanta to see Pawol’s first game. She got seats behind first base because Pawol was umpiring at first. She both could and couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
Well, when she could see at all. Some tears got in the way.
“I sat behind first base and bawled my head off for two to three innings,” Barber said. “It was a very special experience to me.”
The dream continues. Barber and a group are sponsoring 20 women to attend the Harry Wendlestat Umpire School this offseason. The previous high for a single umpiring class was four women.
Pawol is the first. But she is blazing a trail where she won’t be the last.
