By Drew Tweedie | at May 13, 2026 8:10pm CDT
Jason Heyward will be rejoining the Dodgers as a special assistant in the front office, as first reported by Maddie Lee of the Los Angeles Times. Jesse Rogers of ESPN reported that Heyward also spoke with the White Sox and Cubs about a position before accepting the L.A. job.
Heyward, long renowned for his clubhouse presence, did not have to wait long for a new role after hanging up the spikes. Signed out of Henry County High School by the “hometown” Braves in 2007, Heyward rocketed up prospect lists before settling as the near-unanimous top prospect in all of baseball before the 2010 season. The 20-year-old Heyward caught fire almost immediately, and rode an above-average left-handed bat, a superlative glove, and tremendous speed to MLB stardom. Given his then-young age (26) and all-rounder performance, Heyward was poised for a handsome reward in free agency after five years with Atlanta and one with St. Louis.
The Cubs signed Heyward to an eight-year, $184MM deal following the 2015 season. Unfortunately, Heyward’s bat regressed almost instantly: outside of 2019-2020, the offense was average at best (and often significantly worse). He remained a strong defender and Heyward famously had a rousing clubhouse speech that’s been credited with helping to end the Cubs’ 108-year championship drought. Following two sub-standard offensive seasons in 2021-2022, the Cubs had decided they’d seen enough and elected to release him in the final year of his deal.
With only the minimum salary obligation due, the Dodgers elected to extend Heyward a 2023 Spring Training invite. He rewarded their faith with a .269/.340/.473 line in 377 regular-season plate appearances, good for a 119 wRC+ (100 is average) that harkened back to his best seasons. Unfortunately, Heyward wasn’t able to recapture the magic in a 2024 reunion with the Dodgers. He would finish out a below-average, yet respectable season between LA and Houston before logging a forgettable 95 PAs with San Diego in 2025 during the last stop of his playing career.
His retirement announcement toward the end of March officially closed the book on one of the greatest defensive careers in modern baseball history. For now, Heyward will look to transition to a supporting role for the next wave of major-league talent. The Dodgers also hired Clayton Kershaw in a special assistant position around Opening Day.
J-Hey! The guys love him
What do you mean they “love” him?
I hear he’s a great “shadow” partner.
The comment likely implies pragma, storge, and/or agape.
He give good meet
President of Pep Talk Operations. Good for him!
Informal title: Freeman’s BFF
It worked. Mookie just hit a home run. Back to back home runs with Espinal, of all people.
The Jason effect in effect already.
And appears to be effective.
Off topic. I always see your username as Barley Jarvis. Then I think of beer. And iron Man
Rain delay specialist! I went to HS with Jason, good dude. Hell of a career.
Funny I was Jason’s high school custodian. Is this Screech?
Can’t go wrong having him around the clubhouse. Having him be able to visit with the minor league players can only help them as well.
Nice move
Forward thinking Friedman. The best exec in baseball for years now. As much credit as he gets, it’s not enough.
Friedman is that you?
Nah, that’s Stearns.
Nah, im just jealous. Wishing the Mets had him.
I could be wrong, but didn’t he homer in his first MLB ab.
Yes, he did. It was a 3 run homer off Carlos Zambrano.
Dave Robers was very obsessed with Hayward when was in the Dodgers, so much so that when he stopped hitting completelyRobert’s pretty much refused to take him out of the lineup or stop giving a multiple pinch hitting appearances.
My guess is the growing sense of something deeper is wrong with this club is growing in the organization and they hope Hayward can somehow help fix this by hanging around the clubhouse like a ghost.
I wish they would look at the hitting coach situation because they hit like 234 the entire postseason last year barely hit over 200 in the World Series and are in a team wide slump this year for a lengthy period of time which is not normal considering the talent on this team, but nothing gets fixed.
Are you having a stroke?
Dodger fans enter panic mode if they don’t have a 10 game lead on the rest of MLB by may.
It’s the incessant rambling about batting average that sends me. Bro’s going senile.
If a team batting average is .000, would that be a problem? Then batting average must have SOME value.
Draw walks.
Hahaha
What specifically is indicative of clubhouse issues??
How many ‘special assistants’ do they need?
13
One more than they’ve already got. Do I have to explain everything?
Definitely
11
Cant take his advise on hitting, thats for true
“officially closed the book on one of the greatest defensive careers in modern baseball history”. Seems like a stretch.
Also why is hometown in quotes?
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Dodgers Hire Jason Heyward As Special Assistant – MLB Trade Rumors
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