{"id":116866,"date":"2026-03-27T23:03:35","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T03:03:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=116866"},"modified":"2026-03-27T23:03:55","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T03:03:55","slug":"clayton-kershaw-returns-special-assistant-dodgers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/03\/27\/clayton-kershaw-returns-special-assistant-dodgers\/","title":{"rendered":"Future Hall of Famer Returns as Special Assistant for the Dodgers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>First Ballot Hall of Fame pitcher <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/k\/kershcl01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-03-27_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Clayton Kershaw<\/a> may be done toeing the rubber for the Los Angeles Dodgers. However, he will continue serving the organization in a different role. Kershaw will return as a special assistant for the Dodgers, according to Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic. The scope and capacity of the role are yet to be determined. The left-hander <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/09\/18\/dodgers-clayton-kershaw-retiring-after-season\/\" target=\"_self\">retired<\/a> at the end of last season after winning a third World Series ring with the team that drafted him 18 years ago.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"max-width: 610px\"><smartframe-embed class=\"smartframe_wp_element\" customer-id=\"b0c95bc04383cef69c6b47df872135cf\" image-id=\"WmOBzsf7iYC1\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 3072px; aspect-ratio: 3072\/2048;\" ><\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n<h2>Clayton Kershaw Hired as Special Assistant with Dodgers<\/h2>\n<h2>Not Resting on His Laurels<\/h2>\n<p>This responsibility will be in addition <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/01\/06\/future-hall-of-famer-clayton-kershaw-could-be-in-line-for-a-broadcast-role\/\" target=\"_self\">to his broadcast role<\/a> at NBC&#8217;s Sunday Night Baseball. The three-time Cy Young Award winner made his debut on Opening Night at Dodger Stadium to rave reviews. Seated next to the home dugout, Kershaw offered color commentary and personal insights on a game with which he is very much acquainted, although he called his perch &#8220;unfamiliar.&#8221; The left-hander watched his former team dispatch the Arizona Diamondbacks in a lopsided 8-2 win.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Clayton Kershaw has officially been brought on as a Dodgers special assistant. What that means going forward is fluid, but the organization obviously wasn\u2019t shy they want to keep him involved.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FabianArdaya\/status\/2037675711516037604?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 27, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Making the Most of Retirement<\/h2>\n<p>The announcement of the new position with the Dodgers coincides with Ring Night as Los Angeles continues to celebrate back-to-back World Series wins. Kershaw, who was seen on the field before the festivities, didn&#8217;t provide specifics. He did comment, &#8220;&#8230;I&#8217;ll be involved. I still want to be a part of the Dodgers, so if I can help in some small piece, I will.&#8221; The Dodgers have made it very clear that they want Kershaw&#8217;s input going forward. His clubhouse leadership was invaluable during his playing career. \u00a0It seems his influence in the organization will continue for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n<h2>Passing the Knowledge<\/h2>\n<p>Now players will have the benefit of learning from the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/12\/21\/greatets-dodger-pitchers-history\/\" target=\"_self\">starting pitcher<\/a> with the best WAR rating in the live ball era. Kershaw may not be in a Dodger uniform anymore, but he is still contributing to the game he loves.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>First Ballot Hall of Fame pitcher Clayton Kershaw may be done toeing the rubber for the Los Angeles Dodgers. However, he will continue serving the organization in a different role. Kershaw will return as a special assistant for the Dodgers, according to Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic. The scope and capacity of the role are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5226,"featured_media":60989,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33,1071,35],"tags":[97],"class_list":["post-116866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dodgers","category-mlb","category-news","tag-clayton-kershaw"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5226"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116866"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116891,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116866\/revisions\/116891"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}