Los Angeles Dodgers hat and glove in the dugout against the Atlanta Braves in the third inning at Turner Field on Aug. 12, 2014. Brett Davis-Imagn Images

Former Dodgers General Manager Holds Key Donald Trump Advisory Position

Originally posted on Los Angeles Dodgers on SI
By J.P. Hoornstra | Last updated Sep 5, 2025 1:00 PM ET

Kevin Malone has been largely unseen and unheard from in baseball circles since his last day as general manager of the Dodgers. For most Dodger fans, that's probably OK.

Malone's tenure in Los Angeles — from Sept. 11, 1998 to April 19, 2001 — was memorable for off-the-field drama, unmemorable for its results.

Malone often clashed with his hand-picked manager, Davey Johnson. He fired Johnson after an 86-win season, the best under his watch, in October 2000. Early the next season, Malone threatened to fight a fan in San Diego who was heckling Dodgers star Gary Sheffield. Five days later, he resigned.

Malone "really believed he was a distraction," Dodgers chairman Bob Daly told reporters at the time, "and we agreed with that."

Flash forward to Wednesday, when Malone's name crossed over into the baseball industry consciousness for the first time in a while. The Washington Nationals announced the Health and Human Services Department's Senior Advisor on Human Trafficking, in the Administration for Children and Families, will throw the ceremonial first pitch at their Sept. 16 game against the Atlanta Braves.

The advisor's name? Kevin Malone.

In October 2019, during Donald Trump's first term in office, the president appointed Malone to head an anti-human-trafficking task force called the Public-Private Partnership Advisory Council to End Human Trafficking. He joined HHS earlier this year, when Trump was sworn in to a second term.

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Malone was far removed from his Dodger days when he co-founded the nonprofit, faith-based U.S. Institute Against Human Trafficking in 2016. He was appointed by the NFL's Super Bowl host committee in 2022 to assemble a coalition of local and national organizations to combat sex trafficking around the event.

More recently, Malone spoke directly about how his experience in baseball informs his current job.

"There's very few collaborative measures in place," Malone said, via the Conservative Political Action Conference on Instagram. "I know that if we work together we can accomplish more. One of my challenges at HHS is to form groups that can work together to accomplish more. I was in Major League Baseball for 17 years and I built teams, so I have a little bit of experience in this. That's a big challenge because a lot of people have agendas, or they think they know better, but I think I've got an opportunity to bring everybody to the table so that we can accomplish what needs to be accomplished.

"In my opinion, I want to end human trafficking. I want to stop it."