TODAY: Roberts and the Dodgers are in talks, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reports, with the intent to have a new contract finalized prior to the start of the season.
FEBRUARY 9: Longtime Dodgers manager Dave Roberts is entering the last season of his contract, though it seems like an extension isn’t far off, as both Roberts and president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman told The Athletic’s Andy McCullough. “It’ll get done,” Roberts said, while Friedman said that “Doc has been a big part of our past success and I look forward to him being a big part of future success as well.”
There hasn’t been any indication that L.A. was planning any sort of managerial change, as Roberts has done nothing but win over his six years as the team’s skipper. Roberts has led the Dodgers to a 542-329 record during those six years, a run that includes five NL West titles, three pennants, and the crowning achievement of the 2020 World Series championship.
With the lockout halting most baseball-related activities, Roberts has been given a bit more of an opportunity to relax and “reset” during his offseason, as he told McCullough. It could be that an extension might have been struck earlier in the winter, though Roberts noted that he didn’t get in touch with Friedman prior to the lockout, given that the front office was naturally very busy in trying to finish more pressing matters before all Major League transactional business was halted.
Roberts joined the Dodgers back in November 2015, initially signing a three-year contract that contained a club option for the 2019 season. Following the end of the 2018 campaign (and the Dodgers’ loss to the Red Sox in the World Series), Los Angeles exercised that club option to lock Roberts up for 2019, and then in December 2018 announced a new four-year pact with Roberts covering the 2019-22 seasons. With that timeline in mind, it isn’t surprising that L.A. is again working essentially a year in advance to prevent Roberts from any sort of lame-duck status.
Great guy, I’m truly happy for him.
Max Scherzer isn’t. He saw this coming and that’s why he left. He didn’t like how Roberts used him and believes it contributed to his dead arm. Though Scherzer thinks he got dead arm because he didn’t pitch enough. So Scherzer could easily be the one in the wrong here.
Doesn’t matter who is managing, any team that offered Max over $43M per was gonna land him.
True. He didn’t have a lot of positive things to say about how he was managed in LA though.
I know, he’s always been outspoken. I do think there’s some truth to his claim, but you can’t fault Dave for it. He had never managed him before.
Scherzer’s current opinions simply don’t line up with what actually took place. His usage was typical of a frontline starter, with the only games he failed to go deep in being two bad outings and one cut short by a multi-hour rain delay.
The game logs are readily available from Baseball Reference. Scherzer wasn’t kept from pitching deep into games, he wasn’t pulled early in pitch counts. If anything, Scherzer was needed to go deeper as Kershaw was suddenly unavailable and the Dodgers were forced to throw more bullpen games in very meaningful spots.
A bunch of us had this discussion around the time he signed with the Mets.
Did he ever specifically criticize getting pulled early? Because it’s believed he was talking about not being allowed to pitch every fifth day in LA.
The game logs are readily available from Baseball Reference. He did not pitch on Day 5 very often with the Dodgers, but he did with the Nats. Some pitchers do suffer negative effects when they don’t maintain a regular every-fifth-day schedule.
I’ll start out by saying I’m not a big fan of Roberts. He is a great manager of personalities and players, but he usually does not make the best in game decisions.
That said however the criticism he takes from Scherzer is unwarranted and inaccurate from Scherzer. When Roberts took Scherzer out early in games it was because he was getting lit up. His last regular season start with the Dodgers he pitched 5.1 innings in a game where he gave up 6 runs off 11 hits. His 2nd last regular season start he pitched 5 innings game up 5 runs. In both of those game he pitched 102 and 97 pitches respectively. What manager would keep someone out there who was seriously struggling while the team was fighting to win the division? Especially when the Dodgers had arguably the best bullpen in baseball.
What Roberts did mismanage with Max was bringing him in to close out game 5 vs the giants in the playoffs on short rest. He should used have used his bullpen which he used all season to close out games.
Maybe I missed it, but I’m not aware of how Scherzer criticized Robert’s. He didn’t agree with his usage and based on his previous experience, he felt like being used less contributed to his dead arm.
Maybe you’re repeating what Please Hammer commented, which is a mistake. His takes are often way off base.
Scherzer is an overpaid baby. Completely washed up.
Wadshed up, the guy was clutch in 2021. He entered the playoffs worn out. He may have an argument with mismanagement.
I like Robert’s, he seems like a great guy.
As a Braves fan and watching Dave Roberts manage the last few years I like this! With all the talent the Dodgers had in the last decade they could only put it all together in a 60 game regular season.
@FredMcGriff
Not to mention neutral sites and no fans
Dave roberts refused to manage the all star game in atlanta. Mlb believed that would lead to further people declining to participate is what got the all star game pulled from atlanta.
Yeah, that was the story in the Athletic.
I hadn’t heard that; I have even more respect for him.
Funny, the voting laws were more restrictive in Colorado than the proposed Georgia laws AND a lot of black people were denied business by the MLB going to the Saltine-American (cracker) state of Colorado.
Unintended consequences.
Really?
Really was for paddy.
Like cogs on an idiot wheel, so are the MLB days with Rob Manfred.
Manfred like all commissioners is a highly paid shield for the miscreant owners.
This was always so completely inevitable it seems like it should have gotten done months ago.
Insert Michael Scott “no. God. No.” Meme
Was just thinking that.
Dave Roberts currently has the highest winning percentage of any manager in MLB history.
I wonder why? How about because he always has a great team. Bochy would win championships every year with this roster
That’s because he doesn’t manage. The front office does it for him. The analytics department tells him what to do (like start Knebel and bring Urias and Scherzer out in relief on short rest). Roberts keeps his job by doing whatever his bosses tell him to do. He’s not out their figuring it out for himself.
Nailed it. It frustrates me as a lifelong fan. Dave is a great guy though.
You’re saying the Dodgers roster is so easy to win, yet trying to discredit the manager who actually did it. Bochy couldn’t win at the end with SF while Kapler took a similar roster to 107 wins
I know Bochy, and Roberts is no Bochy!
But they both had success by leaving San Diego.
RemoveManagerWinsFromTheRecordBooks
Roberts will always have a home in Red Sox lore for “The Steal” but I’m not sure many would want him managing the team.
Roberts is a figure head. Friedman and the Analytics department call the shots. They are basically “Quarterbacking” from the front office. When Roberts actually has to manage bad pitching decisions usually follow
Re. Rsox 2nd paragraph, this is a tired rumor from baseball fans making a lazy analysis. What evidence is for this?
Because LAD organization has embraced data analytics more than many organizations?
Because there have a few high profile mistakes that make the Monday quarterback sound like geniuses?
Any support for the laughable “he’s not a good manager” cannot use any data from 2017.
When the Dodgers go past the first round of playoffs consistently, there will be more examples of Monday quarterbacks trying to sound smart.
The truth is the vast majority critics won’t ever get a hint of managing at the the highest pro level in any sport.
Why? Yes he’s a good person. But he’s non analytical and gets beat in the matchup game consistently particularly in the playoffs.
Fangraphs gave him the lowest grade of the postseason managers.
Doesn’t the FO deserve that report card? I mean if only because they are obviously very pleased with his work.
OMG Blue. The FO deserves an F for Bauer. They panicked when SD made their moves. They broke their own stated commitment to character.
Bauer would have poisoned the team from within even without the assault accusation. He’s just a selfish child with no self control and he relishes making others uncomfortable.
Worst is that at 40M he wasn’t even a bargain.
Yeah. You nailed that one
That seems…strangely low for Roberts. I mean, I could see Boone, who gets eliminated every year when the Yankees are supposed to be favorites for the WS, or some of the other stacked teams repeatedly eliminated that never achieved their potential, but his teams performed very well. Just seems like an aberrant rating compared with the team’s actual performance – unless they’re saying the team performed that way in spite of Roberts…especially in ‘20.
Then again, these stat places can’t even get a defensive metric for a position consistent, so…
The Padres could if had him (Roberts)as Manager. But they let him slip away.
They let him go because he had a .000 winning percentage as Padres manager.
According to some people, winning percentage is all that matters.
with $286 million budget, it’s a wonder they only won a single world series* since ’88!
Well there’s a team in the state of Texas that stole one from them…
’89, ’90,’91—————————-2016, 2017, 2018!
Don’t be such an As*trole!
[Hahahaha!]
And that was only a half a win too! covie20 type shouldn’t count as a real win!
Freeman didn’t win a real MVP, nor did Abreu! Bauer and Bieber have fake CY Youngs! Lewis and Williams are liars in the face of prior ROYs! See how stupid it sounds?
@tstats
A marathon is 26.2 miles. Would you say that running 9.70 miles is even close to the same?
Lol your team couldn’t do it though, not even in 60 games
@semut
My team just won a championship in a 162-game season (161 due to rainout). That postseason run included playing on the road in front of full crowds.
@48. After losing Soroka for the whole 2021 season and Acuna early in the season then losing the Morton after 2 innings in the World Series. Braves Championship is legit.
Lets add no Ozuna for most of the year. Using 6 different Catchers while d’Arnaud was injured. And literally building an OF mid-season out of Adam Duvall and three guys who were struggling and wound playing instrumental roles in the postseason. Braves run to a championship was one of the most remarkable we’ve ever seen
That is the definition of a marathon. A major league season has never been exclusively defined as a 162 game season.
But it was probably your ancestors that trolled Maris. Let go of your asterisk fondling.
@paddy0875
I’m not saying it has to be exactly 162 but it was only 37 percent of a full season with a bunch of seven-inning doubleheaders mixed in. They also didn’t play against two of the divisions in their own league during the regular season and the postseason was played at neutral sites with no fans. If the season is 135 games this year and the Dodgers win a title while playing in hostile postseason environments then I will gladly give them credit.
Yes, it was very impressive the way the Braves kept overcoming hurdles.
Get it done.
The Dodgers still haven’t won a legitimate World Series since 1988. Still think it’s good to have Dave Roberts as a manager, though.
Nor have the Astros
True.
So shut up and just consider 2020 a makeup for 2017
@Daniella
Your logic is flawed. If the Astros hadn’t cheated in 2017 then the Dodgers would have had a different World Series opponent and they would have lost to that team instead of Houston.
The Astros won a WS in 88?
Considering the first series was in 1903 and all the ridiculous rule changes since then, I’d say no team has really won a legitimate World Series since then.
1910 The cork center was added to the official baseball. This changed the momentum to more offense in the game.
1917 – All freak deliveries, including the spitball, were outlawed.
Seems unfair that teams played and won the championships before these rules but somehow, MLB needed to change them? Why not go back to 1903 rules so we have legitimate winners of World Series’?
Fire this nice guy, but gutless manager who can’t handle a pitching staff! Enough already! Horrible manager
Doc does a great job of massaging egos. Managing players A+. Managing games C-. That’s the front office job. But that seems to work these days.
If Trevor Bauer ever suits up again in a Dodger uniform, Dave Roberts will be a good guy to keep that circus under control.
washingtonpost.com/sports/2021/08/14/trevor-bauer-…
“Roberts and the Dodgers are in talks…with the intent to have a new contract finalized prior to the start of the season.”
——————-
So no rush.
Poor manager of the bullpen nor a good game manager.
Yet a fantastic leader of the clubhouse and the overall culture. Talk about a team that doesn’t have the egos and the premadonnas that others do. He gets his team to play for the betterment of the win column at the expense of individual playtime and they all buy in. Exceptional manager!
I agree. I like how Roberts handled Puig. He didn’t put up with his crap no matter how well he was playing. He’s a leader.
Follows FO game plan, gets multiyear extension.
Los Padres de San Diego Versus Los Angeles “Doyers”: 2022- National League Championship under new Friars Head Coach: Bobby Melvin and head consultant: Mikey Schildt calling the shots in San Diego from now on. Mr. Roberts….Your work is about to be cut out for you. 😉
Schildt will be the first manager of the San Antonio Scorpions.
Why wouldn’t they want to extend him?
Great winning records, listen to the front desk, great with players….
I mean you can doubt his in-game decisions all you want (IF he made those decisions) but it is hard to deny he produced the results.
I could have won the same amount of games with that roster and payroll flexibility. When a manager can say “hey can u get me Mookie betts at the deadline, and lock him up for 350+million, u tend to have an easier time looking good
Noooooo!!!! Nice guy, but…….can’t handle a pitching staff, as we’ve seen this year after year and his in-game managing is just not good! I’m tired of idiot baseball fans basing his managing skills on the teams record! Wake up!
Colonel of the base.Loyal Officer who follows orders.Ownership believes in the system not the man.He takes what is offered or unfortunately the system will say NEXT.