"Don't be surprised if the Tigers hire Tony LaRussa.

Not to manage, though.

Jim Leyland is, and will continue to be for at least 2012, the Tigers' manager.

Plus LaRussa doesn't want to manage again. If he still wanted to manage, he wouldn't have left the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Tigers won't hire him to coach, either.

Leyland and LaRussa are close friends, but if Gene Lamont gets the Red Sox managing job, for which he's interviewing, LaRussa would not become Leyland's bench coach.

Even for Leyland, there's no indication LaRussa intends, wants or would agree to coach.

But this is what I think - and why I'm saying the Tigers have as good a chance as any team, but better than most, of adding LaRussa to a front-office position.

Probably as a special assistant, along the lines of an Al Kaline and Willie Horton, to president and general manager Dave Dombrowski.

LaRussa, by all accounts, wants to stay in the game - and is planning to stay in the game. His managing career is over, but his baseball career isn't.

I asked Leyland this week if LaRussa would come to spring training with the Tigers to help out however he could, the way Leyland did with the Cardinals between gigs as a manager. He said "I'm surprised I haven't been asked that before."