Clayton Kershaw finds ideal way to rejoin Dodgers organization after television debut

Shortly after the Dodgers' World Series win, Andy McCullough of The Athletic — who literally wrote the book on Clayton Kershaw — reported that the front office had approached their future Hall of Famer with an offer to join them.

Kershaw graciously declined. "I don't think I have any full-time jobs in my future," he said at the time. "Except full-time dad."

When he was gearing up for the World Baseball Classic with Team USA in Scottsdale, Kershaw told reporters that he hadn't made the drive west to Glendale to visit his old squad at Camelback Ranch. Better to have a clean break, he said.

Kershaw moved his family back to Texas during the regular season, after he officially announced his retirement. Dodgers fans figured that, despite his new broadcasting deal with NBC, he'd continue to keep his distance from the team.

Psych.

Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic reported Friday that Kershaw would be joining the Dodgers as a special assistant.

Kershaw was noticeably nostalgic throughout the Opening Day broadcast on NBC and said right at the top of proceedings that it felt strange to be in his new vantage point.

He was still close to the game — literally sitting right next to the Dodgers dugout — but evidently, it wasn't close enough.

Clayton Kershaw officially returns to Dodgers as a special assistant

It's impossible to know what "special assistant" actually means. A lot of franchise legends get titles like that after they decide to call it a career; Miguel Cabrera's "special assistance" to the Tigers seems pretty limited to the odd coaching stint in spring training.

It really seems symbolic more than anything, but it's easy to speculate on the ways in which Kershaw might be particularly useful to the Dodgers' front office.

If LA didn't already give free agents every reason to want to play for them, how about having the greatest left-handed pitcher of a generation accompany Andrew Friedman and Co. to meetings to extol the virtues of the organization? Doesn't that seem like it would be especially useful if the free agent in question was Kershaw's heir-apparent?

Friedman made a public plea to Kershaw to come work for the Dodgers during the offseason. With how often he'd insisted that he was going to enjoy his retirement, he almost had us believing him for a second.

We're happy to have been fooled, though. Welcome back, Kersh.