The Dodgers and longtime manager Dave Roberts are making progress on a new contract, reports Joel Sherman of The New York Post. Sherman writes that a deal is expected to be finalized before the team heads to Tokyo next week in preparation for their opening series against the Cubs.
According to Sherman, Roberts is likely to establish a new record for average annual value. That indicates he’ll beat the $8MM salary which Craig Counsell received on his five-year deal with the Cubs last winter. It’s unclear how long Roberts’ next deal will be. He’s currently slated to enter the final season of the three-year extension he signed in March 2022.
A deal has seemed to be a formality for months. The front office has unsurprisingly expressed interest in continuity on the heels of their second World Series within the last five years. Roberts said in early February that negotiations had just gotten underway. He indicated he was hopeful of getting a deal done but added that he wanted “to feel (his) value” on the contract terms. A record-setting deal should do just that.
Roberts has been at the helm in Los Angeles since November 2015. He’s the National League’s longest-tenured active manager. Kevin Cash, who is entering his 11th season in Tampa Bay, narrowly tops him in that regard overall. The Dodgers have made the playoffs in each of Roberts’ nine seasons. Only a 107-win season by the 2021 Giants kept L.A. from winning the NL West every year. Los Angeles had also won the NL West under Don Mattingly in each of the three years preceding Roberts’ hiring.
The 52-year-old Roberts has been fortunate to work with incredible rosters. Still, talent alone doesn’t guarantee success. No other team has made the playoffs in each of the last nine years. Dodger brass was comfortable enough with Roberts’ leadership skills to stick by him despite some criticism about his in-game tactics in the postseason early in his tenure. The veteran skipper adroitly handled a rotation that had been decimated by injury during last year’s World Series run.
Roberts has led the Dodgers to an 851-507 record in the regular season. No other skipper who has managed as many games has bested that 62.7% win percentage. Roberts has helmed the Dodgers to four pennants and a pair of championships. He won the NL Manager of the Year award in 2016.
Tommy Lasorda must be rolling in his grave!
Tommy Lasorda is doing fine up in the “Angels” dugout in the sky. Tommy could get into the finest restaurants, hotels, shows and theatres in LA.
And all while receiving no bill at the end of the night. R.I.P Tommy Lasorda.
Tommy always took a one year contract.
Except near the end of his career.
Only rolling over to have a bite of that chicken parm!
What you’re implying is just a bit off base, but maybe your comments are dictated by your handle.
Nah, he’s be rooting for Roberts & Dodgers and really really celebrated the 2024 World Series win.
Lasorda 2-2 in WS, 4-2 NL pennants, 8 div titles / 20 years. His record 1,599W–1,439L is .526, 31-30 PS, lost NLDS 1x, missed PS 11x.
Roberts 8 Div titles/9 years, 4-2 NL pennants, 2-2 in WS. Reg. Season record 851-506, .627, 56-44, .560 PS, lost NLDS 3x, missed PS 0x.
By all stat measures, Roberts has already equaled Lasorda’s managerial accomplishments in less than half the time.
Did Lasorda do more w/less, maybe.
Should Roberts have done more w/more, debatable, that’s baseball. Revisit this in Roberts’ yr 15.
Nah, he’d be rooting for Roberts and Dodgers, and would have savored the 2024 World Series Championship over the Yankees.
Lasorda 2-2 in WS, 4-2 NL pennants, 8 div titles / 20 years. His record 1,599W–1,439L is .526, 31-30 PS, lost NLDS 1x, missed PS 11x.
Roberts 8 Div titles/9 years, 4-2 NL pennants, 2-2 in WS. Reg. Season record 851-506, .627, 56-44, .560 PS, lost NLDS 3x, missed PS 0x.
By all stat measures, Roberts has already equaled Lasorda’s managerial accomplishments in less than half the time. Did Lasorda do more w/less, maybe.
Should Roberts have done more w/more, debatable, that’s baseball. Revisit this in Roberts’ yr 15 to year 20.
Waiting for the Dodger haters to chime in.
I find the Dodgers boring, made even more boring by Roki Sasaki. I hope Roki Sasaki loses 20 games.
Only team I truly hate is the Evil Empire.
You hate a guy that’s going to make the league minimum?
Losing is boring. Yucki ought to be an expert in that.
And we all find your tired repetitive commentary boring.
PrincessYuki does seem boring, or at least the vapid role they have embraced.
Ironically, the biggest Dave Roberts haters have historically been dodger fans.
Yuki got the trolls started.
Like Aaron Boone, Dave Robert’s best work is done in handling and interacting with the media. They’re both actually very good at it.
The lineups, key decisions and strategies? Oh, those were created, debated and decided weeks ago by the front office analytics guys.
@mlb
Be sure you report the next FO meeting you sit in on. We’ll all be interested,
I feel you are being a bit obtuse. I believe we all know how game strategy works in the analytics era. Managers make few in game decisions that aren’t based on the data and detailed pregame planning.
There is also the biggest part: managing the players themselves. Not everyone is good at that!
The two World Series championships have been won with his handling of the staff. In 2020 it was maneuvering through a bullpen game to finish off the Rays in six.
And this year it was a masterful job of pushing the right buttons with three starting pitchers to string together 33 scoreless innings (to rally past the Padres and start the NLCS against the Mets) and multiple bullpen games, one of which was essentially a punt to set the team up better to finish the job against the Yankees in 5. Heck, Game 2 against the Mets was nearly the same thing, setting up Buehler to be in a hostile environment where he might actually excel more. Not to mention managing that pen to avoid the other teams seeing high leverage arms multiple games in a row.
It’s so easy to win the World Series with the best team. That’s why it’s almost never what actually happens.
Pronk – Cora DID crash a 108-win World Champion team in 2019.
Dodgers would make the playoffs every year even if Pedro Grifol was their manager.
Jim Tracy and Grady Little would like a word
They’d have made the playoffs with the current ownership and phenomenal TV deal that blows away the field.
They couldn’t with Beltre, Shawn Green, Gary Sheffield, Kevin Brown, and Eric Gagne
Fred – Jimy Williams too, RIP.
another clueless “expert”
Matt Williams had the reins of the Nationals for 2 years, and I suspect he could at least have LAD in the wild card hunt.
No deferred payment jokes yet?
Kinda funny that it’s only taken a decade of sustained success for Doc to finally get his flowers from the team.
The contract is not about Roberts, it is about the organization: The contract is a way for the organization to signal that they are a stable and well run organization.
Gosh, York, thanks. Never even considered what you elucidated in your brilliant post.
@fox471 Dave
I’m glad you liked it. I’m one of the brighter ones here that think outside the box.
It’s not my money, but why are the Dodgers competing with themselves in the bidding? Where is he going to end up managing? The Pirates?”
If on the open market, Roberts would have 5-6 teams vying for his services to replace whoever they have now, NYY, NYM, Padres, maybe Red Sox. If Counselll makes $8M/year for not having won anything yet, Roberts will get paid better than that.
Sure talent alone doesn’t guarantee success, but it does help a lot.
among the best butt slappers ever to manage the game
But how much of it will be deferred?
Something close to a a million in year one and then 250k a year for the rest of his life?
I could be the manager and they’d win 100 games