Dodgers bring back another former player as special assistant to bolster front office

Jason Heyward hung up his cleats after a 16-season career, announcing his retirement in March this year. Although he probably could've found a team to take a minor league flyer on him, he decided to call it a day after a brief, final stint with the Padres in 2025.

Per Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic, Heyward spent spring training speaking with major league clubs about potential front office positions. On Wednesday, he officially came back to the Dodgers as a special assistant.

This is a route that a lot of retired players go — probably the most common one aside from going into broadcasting. Clayton Kershaw joined the front office as a special assistant this year, joining Chase Utley. Chris Archer, who never even pitched for the Dodgers, was a special assistant in 2024.

Fans don't really know what the role entails. In some cases, they appear to be almost entirely ceremonial. Still, it's nice to have J-Hey close to the Dodgers again, especially when fans sort of expected there to be lingering hard feelings after they DFA'ed him in 2024.

Jason Heyward rejoins Dodgers as a special assistant in the front office

Heyward said that he has ambitions beyond this role. "In my mind, it would be cool to be a GM, maybe a president one day," he said. "Who knows? But it is nice to have an opportunity to learn from what I think is the best."

Heyward was a clubhouse leader for the Dodgers in 2023 and 2024, after the Dodgers took a chance on him (at Freddie Freeman's urging) and signed him to a minor league deal in 2023. He broke out at spring training and had a resurgent season, which led the Dodgers to sign him to a one-year, $9 million deal in 2024.

Despite the downturn in his performance that year, the Dodgers' eventual DFA in August was still shocking. They usually love to hang onto their glue guys and pride themselves on having a good clubhouse culture, which Heyward was a main steward of.

Hopefully, even as a member of the front office, he'll be able to interface with the players, many of whom are former teammates from 2024, on a regular basis. It's great to have him close to the organization again (and we bet Freeman very much agrees).

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