Perkins' non-playing future

Glen Perkins said publicly last week what was widely presumed at the end of the 2017 season: He's finished as a professional pitcher:

Let me address the 🐘 in the room. I won’t be playing baseball anymore. I’ll spend my time brewing beer, smoking meat woodworking and hanging with my family. Or, the same things I have been doing just without the baseball part.

— Glen Perkins (@glenperkins) January 24, 2018

LaVelle Neal of the Star Tribune reports that the three-time All-Star closer is talking with GM Thad Levine about a role in the mushrooming analytics department. This would make sense, as Perkins was pretty vocal over the years about how much he used the new era of knowledge. 

As a fan weary of the organization's insistence on broadcast "analysts" older than I am -- analysts dismissive and/or ignorant of concepts that postdate their long-ago playing days -- I'd like to see Perk in the booth. But as a sabermetric evangelist with clubhouse credibility, there's a real opportunity for Perkins to have an obvious front office role, which can't really be said of some of the "special assistants" the team has been naming under the new regime.