Dodgers rehire Ibanez for role in front office

The Los Angeles Dodgers rehired longtime major leaguer Raul Ibanez as their new vice president of baseball development and special projects, the team announced Friday.

Ibanez spent the past two years working with Major League Baseball as a senior vice president of on-field operations, reporting directly to executive vice president Morgan Sword — who helped spearhead last year’s rule changes — while working on issues related to rules, equipment and on-field technology. Prior to that, Ibanez spent six years as a special assistant within the Dodgers’ baseball operations department.

Ibanez’s current Dodgers role is full-time, which means he will relinquish his duties with MLB.

Ibanez, 51, spent 19 years in the big leagues, accumulating 2,034 hits and 305 home runs while playing for the Seattle Mariners, Philadelphia Phillies, Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Angels and New York Yankees from 1996 to 2014. Ibanez’s most productive years were spent in Seattle, but he made his only All-Star team as a member of the Phillies in 2009 and later starred for them in the postseason. With the Yankees, he had perhaps the most memorable moment of his career, hitting the tying, pinch-hit home run in the ninth inning of Game 3 of the American League Division Series, then the walk-off homer in the 12th.