NOV. 23: The Dodgers have formally announced the hiring. In the press release announcing the move, Friedman issued the following statement:
“We could not have been more impressed with [Roberts] through this process. His energy is infectious and he has the rare ability to make a genuine connection with every person he comes across. He has developed strong leadership qualities and accumulated a breadth of baseball experience over his career as both a player and coach. He is a “baseball man” and “people person” in the truest sense of those words. We feel fully confident that he will effectively lead our team in pursuit of its ultimate goal — bringing a world championship back to the city of Los Angeles.”
NOV. 22: 11:12pm: The official introductory press conference will be held after the Thanksgiving weekend, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reports. Roberts will sign a three-year deal, Nightengale reports, and Hernandez adds that the contract also contains a club option on a fourth season. (Both links to Twitter.)
7:28pm: The Dodgers are expected to hire Dave Roberts as the team’s next manager on Monday, sources tell Dylan Hernandez, Bill Plaschke and Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times. Talks are in the “final stages” according to FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal, and ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick reports the last contractual details are expected to be completed by tonight.
Roberts, 43, has spent the last five seasons on the Padres coaching staff, first acting as a first base coach from 2011-13 and then as the bench coach for the last two years. He wasn’t a candidate for the Padres’ managerial vacancy, though he did interview to be the Mariners’ next manager before Scott Servais was hired. This will be Roberts’ first managerial job at any level of pro baseball, aside from one game last summer as a fill-in for the Padres after Bud Black was fired.
It’s not, however, Roberts’ first time wearing Dodger blue. The Dodgers (2002-04) were one of five clubs Roberts played for during his 10-year Major League career, as he amassed a .266/.342/.366 line over 3092 with the Indians, Dodgers, Red Sox, Padres and Giants from 1999-2008. Roberts is probably best known for his brief tenure in Boston, as his steal of second in the ninth inning of Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS is hailed as the key turn-around moment in that incredible Red Sox comeback (and their eventual march to a curse-breaking World Series title).
Roberts may have also somewhat come from behind in getting the Dodgers job, as director of player development Gabe Kapler was heralded as the early favorite. Team ownership, however, insisted on a thorough search that expanded to include experienced former managers such as Bud Black, Kirk Gibson and Bob Geren, Cubs bench coach Dave Martinez, University Of Nebraska head coach Darin Erstad and Dodgers coaches Tim Wallach and Ron Roenicke. According to the latest reports, the search had been narrowed to Roberts and Kapler.
Roberts will jump right into the deep end as a rookie manager, as he will be tasked with leading a star-studded roster with a $200MM+ payroll to its first World Series appearance since 1988. The Dodgers won three straight NL West titles under Don Mattingly’s leadership, though the team only won one playoff round in those three seasons. Mattingly and the Dodgers, of course, mutually parted ways after the team was eliminated by the Mets in this year’s NLDS and Mattingly went on to take over the Marlins’ managerial job.
Roberts is Andrew Friedman’s first managerial hire since taking over as the Dodgers president of baseball operations, and thus it could be argued that Friedman now has all of his ideal personnel in place in both the front office and the dugout. It’s also just the second managerial hire that Friedman has made in a decade as a top executive; as he did in hiring Joe Maddon to manage the Rays in 2006, Friedman has again picked a well-regarded bench coach to become a first-time big league manager.
That was fast. Not really but he was fast.
How often are they wrong?
Personally, Roberts wasn’t my favorite, but I don’t sign the checks
They really just wanted someone who would do whatever the FO told them in terms of everyday lineup and playing time.
Wrong. That would have been Kapler
But Kapler isn’t the type of guy that could easily earn the trust of the players, as he would obviously just be an extension of the front office. Roberts is still very malleable for the FO and will likely adhere to their standards while being able to earn the trust of the players
Roberts no yes man but this front office is a all star of front office’s
That would be anyone who would do exactly what the FO told them to do. Its part of the reason Mattingly isn’t there. Its part of the reason Black is in the FO of the Angels. Good, experienced managers don’t want to be puppets.
I can live with Roberts – I think he has a good rep. I was a bit worried that a team needing to contend now and every year would need a veteran manager ala Bud Black rather than a risk of unproven types such as Kapler and Roberts. I think Dodgers should have put Kapler and Roberts in minor league team/game situations for seasoning, but they apparently have faith in Roberts and he deserves a chance
Roberts was already in minor league team/game situations for seasoning with the Padres
Ouch…
When did Dave Roberts have minor league experience?
this one obviously went way over your head.
Well he did spend the past few seasons trying to help some of those AAAA players to play decent baseball.
Interesting choice. Roberts must have been very impressive to supplant Kapler, who seemingly was being groomed for the job. Wasn’t aware he was an analytics type.
OK. Good luck to DR. Hope he is wise enough to retain McGwire and that Honeycutt will stay on.
At very least Honeycutt
Certainly Honeycutt but who knows whether Rick will want to stay. Not sold on McGuire, didn’t seem to do much to help the struggles of Pederson, Puig and Grandal. I know some were injury related but still
McGwire is terrible. The only reason he has a job is due to his name. The Padres are reportedly interested in him as a bench coach. He belongs there. That organization is comical.
Yeah I have a bad feeling of the Padres taking him onto their coaching staff.
Who’s your team?
McGuire might not be a good hitting coach, but for one pederson was a rookie so his struggles are normal, puig is all in his head. i dont think his bat a problem what going on has to do with what going on with him. as for grandal catchers arent the best hitters to being with but he sure was a upgrade over AJ
Mcgwire I hope they let him walk….
Look at the guys who were on fire til he got this hands on them.
Puig first year great then…..
Joc great first half then…….
Never good to have a home run hitter be a batting coach when we just need hits. Home runs are great but not when we can’t get on base
Lol at retaining McGwire. That would be very unwise.
Honeycutt has already extended. McGwire should be less concerning…
Quickly done. I was a Donnie baseball fan, and I am of Roberts as well. If the Blue can get a complete starting rotation and two solid seventh and eighth inning men, they will complete again next year.
Floored, to be honest
Surprised the Dodgers didn’t spend 30mil on a Cuban manager
Nice
Hah. That made me laugh out loud
Would he get this job if Posada could throw a runner out?
Congratulations to Dave Roberts.
A pat on the back to Dodgers ownership as well. I have no idea if Roberts would ultimately have been better or worse than Gabe Kapler, but I appreciate that they demanded a legitimate search instead of just anointing somebody out of the gates.
Just because they took a month to name someone does not mean they did a legitimate search. There were no other openings left so the Dodgers had no fear of losing whomever they wanted to hire.
That is just a stupid comment.
Unintelligent comment.
Obviously, I will always love Dave Roberts for his game 4 steal. Wishing him the best of luck! This might even be enough to counter my intense disdain for Carl Crawford. Hmm.
Still can’t believe they didn’t throw a pitch out
looks like Dave Roberts stole the job from Gabe Kapler
I would love to know why someone who was so impressive to the Dodgers wasn’t even considered a candidate by the team that most recently employed him.
Good luck to him. Hope he has (NL) success, and (unsuccessfully) opposes the Sawx of Red in a string of Fall Classics.
Perhaps he wasn’t what the front office was looking for? I guess with Preller, you never know.
Anyways, congrats to Roberts. Now there’ll be two former Padres coaches in the NL west that get to beat up on their old team.
I just thought Gabe Kapler would be such a perfect fit. When Mattingly gets fired in a couple of months, I would hopen he is a legit candidate, but I still can’t see why anyone would want to work for Loria at this point, despite the job that it is, especially when they can be part of the Dodgers organization
all i have to say is good luck to him. hopefully he can get the dodgers past the first round unlike don. i also hope honeycutt stays and tim wallach but i understand if wallach leaves. can roberts teach puig and pederson to use their speed more. those guys can easily be 20/20 guys
Puzzled but I’m not gonna question Friedman
well he was the guy that hire joe madden back in his rays days. so i would trust him a little when it comes to picking a manger
When you stop questioning is when you get yourself into trouble. It’s fine to look at things with a critical eye. Just because it’s Friedman doesn’t mean that he cannot make mistakes. Look at what happened at the trade deadline.
Personally, I like Dave Roberts a lot, and I hope that this will be a good fit.
If he manages the way he played then this should be a fine hire! I always loved his aggressiveness!
Interesting that they replace Mattingly with someone with zero managerial experience with a veteran team. Should be interesting to watch.
isn’t that the tend now days anyways. aren’t a lot of teams hiring people who have little to no managerial experience.
Mattingly should be exhibit A of why experience isn’t the difference maker it’s made out to be.
The Dodgers should move Rick Honeycutt to bench coach and sign Zack Greinke to a player/coach contract and pay him extra to be the pitching coach as well as pitch.