The Dodgers are expected to discuss a contract extension with longtime manager Dave Roberts this offseason, per a report from Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times. Roberts’ current contract is slated to expire following the 2025 season.
It’s hardly a surprise that the Dodgers would look to lock up their skipper before Spring Training begins. Club brass acknowledged last month (as noted by The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya at the time) that the sides had not yet discussed an extension in the aftermath of the club’s World Series championship but was quick to add that he hopes to keep Roberts in the dugout long-term. Even aside from those comments, teams often prefer to avoid having managers play out the final year of their contract without an extension in hand in hopes of avoid a “lame duck” situation, and it’s difficult to argue that Roberts’s performance hasn’t merited an extension.
Since joining the Dodgers as manager back in 2016, Roberts has led the club to nine consecutive postseason appearances, eight division titles, four NL Pennants, and two World Series championships. Ignoring the 60-game 2020 campaign where the Dodgers went 43-17, the club has never won less than 91 games in a season under Roberts’s guidance, and after winning the NL Manager of the Year award in 2016 he’s subsequently been a finalist for the award two more times and received votes in every season of his time at the helm in Los Angeles. Overall, Roberts has a lifetime 851-507 as a manager, giving him a .627 winning percentage. That’s the highest winning percentage of any manager in MLB history with at least 1000 games managed in his career and translates to approximately 102 wins in a 162-game season.
Given the Dodgers’ desire to keep Roberts in the fold long-term and his phenomenal work during his tenure as L.A.’s skipper, Harris goes on to suggest that a record-shattering extension could be on the table for the longtime skipper. Last offseason, Craig Counsell signed a record-breaking extension with the Cubs that guaranteed him $40MM over five years. Counsell is widely considered to be among the best managers in the game at the moment, but he’s never led a team to the World Series or won a Manager of the Year award. In other words, Roberts’s resume is much more robust than Counsell’s was last winter, and it’s not hard to imagine a high-spending club like the Dodgers rewarding their skipper with a record-breaking deal.
Of course, that’s by no means guaranteed to occur. Counsell signed his $40MM deal with Chicago on the open market after playing out the final season of his deal with Milwaukee and had a number of teams vying for his services as the Guardians, Astros, and Mets joined the incumbent Brewers in vying for his services before he ultimately landed on the north side. That stands in contrast to Red Sox skipper Alex Cora, who appeared poised to follow in Counsell’s footsteps and test the open market before ultimately opting to sign a three-year extension in Boston that guaranteed him around $21.75MM total.
Cora doesn’t quite compare to Roberts in terms of resume, with just one World Series championship and a .536 winning percentage under his belt in six seasons as manager in Boston. Even so, the extension between the Red Sox and their well-regarded skipper came in at just over half the total guarantee the Cubs offered Counsell and with a lower yearly salary. That outcome at least left the door open to the possibility that Counsell’s record-setting deal with Chicago was more of an outlier caused by multiple aggressive suitors rather than a new norm for manager salaries in the league.
Manager For Life !!!!!
@Ignorant Son-of-a-b
Could consider something similar to North Korea.
You must be a SF Giant fan, if I wasn’t a Dodger fan I’d feel the same way
Dave Roberts is a fantastic manager but let’s face your son’s Little League manager could manage that team.
Easy to manage a team with a billion dollar payroll and the backing of MLB.
Tow, a similar argument could have been made about the 2023 Padres when Bob Melvin fell on his face and the Little League managers were wondering how he screwed up that star-studded team.
Not the same.
Team didn’t have an “international” superstar in Ohtani.
Marketing baby.
Ohtani is printing money for MLB.
I love seeing Padres fans complain about the Dodgers spending. I’m sorry you guys didn’t add a $300 million contract this year but you’re still a top spender year in and year out. Think of how A’s and Marlin fans feel.
This has nothing to do with the Dodgers but believe you me, the Padres current ownership group is eying the A’s and Marlins payroll model.
Within a a few seasons the Padres payroll will mirror the Pirates, current A’s, Marlins and Rays.
All the while hiding behind the CBT.
Next year the narrative will change for the Padres when they are well below the CBT.
“Market size and the good ol’ “debt service” narrative will surface.
The the “Budget Warriors” will make their presence known all over social media and the Padres local media defending a low payroll.
They will continue to advocate a low payroll while the Padres begin to finish in third or fourth place routinely.
Welcome the return of the annual 74 -76 win Padres maintaining a “sustainable” and “competitive” product marketing “hope” to the fans.
Yes, Dodger fans, as the ownership decreases payroll in San Diego, you will again dominate Petco.
Where do you think Tatis will end up?
I agree. It is easier when you have great talent but you still have to do the work. Roberts has proved he knows how meld a team out of many diverse personalities and egos. He also overcame a virtual meltdown of the starting pitching staff. He also knew when to plug in relievers and which ones.
When he’s dealt it will officially be the end of what they have conveniently branded the “Peter Seidler Era”.
Most likely Boston will be the destination as MLB will look to rebuild the Sox vs Yanks rivalry.
The average Padres fan will be duped into beliving a package involving a Casas type player with Bosoton absorbing the contract will benefit the club.
See the whole A-Rod trade that was vetoed as an example of what was pitched back in the day.
Most Padres fans will be duped into believing it’s more important to clear salary than the pieces the Padres get back in a trade.
The Padres have re-entered the “Saving Money Moores Era” that was prevalent during the post 1998 season until roughly 2014.
Conversations during that time consisted of “how much money can be saved on payroll” and “finding lightning In a bottle”.
Nothing during that era mentioned winning a World Series.
Everything was about turning a profit and Padres fans bought it hook, line and sinker.
Padres fans actually became the biggest proponents for then “saving money” dogma.
But…the savings on payroll wwere never re-invested into acquiring other free-agents, the money was simply pocketed.
Beware, Padres fans, the club is teetering on re-entering the Moores era.
I’m a Dodgers fan, but I really hope this isn’t true. I’m sort of in that boat where I don’t really feel that SD and LA have a true rivalry like LA and SF does (nobody does), but this isn’t the ownership group that our Dads grew up with. I don’t think the current group is going to hack payroll. I think they really want to win, and they’ve tried. I don’t think anybody would have stopped them if they would’ve gotten past us this year. They won’t ever spend like the Dodgers do, they just can’t in their market, but they can draft and develop. They’ve bought some players too, but that team has some really good players that have come through that system. I think the Padres will be competitive as long as the O’Malley family stays involved.
exactly why he is still in baseball. we all know he gambled…
Texas
Tired of this argument. Yes they had a super talented lineup. But they were ravaged by pitching injuries which continued through the post season, more starting pitching on IL than anyone in baseball and yet he pieced that together masterfully through the postseason and World Series. Yes they had talent on offense but so did quite a few other teams, and to manage that group of personalities and get them on same page is never easy. (Easier this year than some of his previous ones mine you; they generally had a very amiable bunch this season.) He could arguably have three World Series too, given what we know about the 2017 7 game WS. Talent is one thing; getting them to play together, navigating a ton of injuries to pitching, is quite another and not all managers succeed to this degree.
Towinagain: “backing of the MLB?” Really? Please give some examples.
A billion dollar payroll? The backing of MLB?
WTH?
Towinagain has been wallowing in the mire for a few years now. Towinagain’s words should not be taken seriously; they’re just expressing their “feelings.”
Where are all the fire Roberts boys now?
@Van Lingle Mungo
Fire him! Guy’s cooked.
So he’s the reason Freddie hit a grand slam and looked like Babe Ruth in the series?
Or is he the reason the Yankees made 3 errors in one inning?
With how much he used the bullpen. He’s lucky none of those games went deep into extra innings.
Dave Roberts didn’t have a chance to lose the series.
@DarrenDreifortsContract
Van asked for it so I complied. It was basic trolling.
Roberts may not be the best tactician, but he’s a great leader who gets a hundred percent effort out of his players with his inspiring speeches. He motivates all his players to buy in to the mission, and that’s way more important than the Xs and Os….
Roberts had plenty of chances to lose that series. He put Buehler in to finish it.
That was definitely a Dave Roberts move lol.
And just the way he went out to talk Treinen into finishing the bottom of the 8th was genius….
Glad we agree and that it worked
4yr/36 M w/ some option for 5th year. Get it done please , Gomes.
@Van
as opposed to?
Sending Treinen out again.
Agreed 100%
Dave was Dave this year. The difference between this past year, and years they didn’t win the WS, (Imagine the pressure of a WS win being the only the only acceptable result for a successful season)was that his players came through for him. Having Buehler close out game 5 had every chance to go as sideways as Kershaw facing Soto and Rendon in ‘19. The difference wasn’t the move Doc made, but how his players performed after the move was made.
This seems like a whole lot of words in search of a point.
Roberts is a figure head who does what the front office tells him. When he manages from the gut is usually when things go wrong. The Dodgers have a history of keeping Managers long past when they should, it’s why between 1954 and 1996 they only had 2.
No, when he manages via analytics, it goes wrong. When he manages from the gut, like putting in Walker Buehler at the bottom of the 9th of the final game of the World Series it goes much better. He has great instincts. Obviously, he can be wrong, but I’ll take him over any other manager in baseball right now.
Van Lingle Mungo — Geez, I dunno. Having those top 3 players in the lineup (as well as Muncy, Smith and Edman) makes managing a heckuva lot easier.
San Diego had Tatis, Machado, and Soto lost to the D-Backs. Having the ability to manage all of those egos is a challenge in and of itself. He’s an incredible manager, and he’s only had Ohtani for one year.
Going with his gut was what got in trouble in ‘19. Analytics are just stats. They’re a little more advanced stats compared to the traditional stats that you saw on the backs of baseball cards in the 60’s, but again they’re just stats. The more advanced statistics that you have at your disposal, the easier it is to make a gut, or any decision, really.
What would you want your manager to do then?
“ Roberts is a figure head who does what the front office tells him”
And you know this how?
Yes good managers succeed best when they listen to those around them; he has a good coaching staff. They don’t need front office to dictate.
Rsox: and how many world championships between 1954-1996?
Didn’t they win 6 WS championships in that span though?
resigned to the fact dei guy is going to be back. k Hernandez Is responsible for the motivation that turned it around in SD. dave will reap the rewards. he was a game away from elimination for a third straight year and now he should be highest paid ever. yeah ok.
DEI guy? Can you do everyone a favor and attach your real name to that comment?
@Wren You can resign yourself to your opinion/thinking is an aberration (def #3)
yeah none of that stuff going on. anyways you both rank me w those cool TR badges I’m jelly
Will there be deferrals built into the contract?
You can bet on it! (according to Ohtani’s “interpreter”)
Over/Under on deferrals…
This is all Dave Robert’s fault.
lol
He’s gotten better since when he 1st became manager. Think Prior has helped em immensely w/how to use pitching staff. Has a better feel of the game. Having heck of a run.
You can see improvements and less blunders in game management.
He’ll be in the Hall of Fame. So will Bochy, Dusty, and Francona.
And yes, Friedman will get in too.
Must be nice being the Manager of a 162 game season All-Star team.
No offense to Roberts but just about anyone could put up good numbers with that team.
@EndinStealth72
Even David Bell?
Bell, Boone, Cora, it would be pretty hard not to have winning seasons with an all star roster and apparently unlimited resources. Keep in Mind Don Mattingly only managed the team for 5 seasons and got into three straight postseasons before they let him go
How many WS did Mattingly get to?
But not everyone can expertly handle a rabid media in one of the nation’s top 3 biggest markets.
Is it rabid media in LA tho?
Not in the least. In LA you apologists up and down the media that make excuses for when the team plays bad
Swap Doc for Booney, NYY and LAD both get better… (?)
Possibly true….
What more should he do to earn your esteemed respect?
Who said I didn’t respect him?
Should be offensive to anyone who follows baseball. Fans for the most part do not understand much about a manager’s job. It’s like an iceberg — 90% under water, and the part you can see isn’t what you think it is. In-game managing in today’s analytics game is a lot about implementing game plans cooked up by the front office.
For some, it’s scary to look beyond the surface level and use critical-thinking like some of the headlines-only readers here.
BlueSkies; do you remember, does Ohtani’s contract contain a clause about Roberts and/or Friedman leaving the team giving him an opt. out within so many years? That would have influence on length of the extension.
Roberts is not part of that. Its Friedman and Walters.
I think this is right, but I don’t recall — and this highly unusual part of his contract received almost no media attention.
@Nick; yeah, I think you’re correct, it’s Walters & Friedman, couldn’t remember if Roberts was a part of it or not. Thanks.
@BlueSkies_LA; thanks!
Roberts is a lot like Sparky, let’s them okay. They like playing for him. As Sparky said when asked what makes him a great manager ?.. he pointed to the players locker room across from his office , “ I give the ball to Tom. “
*lets them play
A monkey could manage this roster and win 95 games…
I assume you turned them down when they called
That sounds a bit racist … although funny.
I would choose Flipper the Dolphin if I had the choice, because of the superior intelligence and they are natural enemies of sharks.
It’s on you when race is the first thing that comes to mind.
Reminds me of when Howard Kosell called a player a monkey and nobody blinked, but if anyone else had said that they would have gotten the Al Campanis treatment.
Plenty of people blinked, and he was forced out of broadcasting MNF after the season
@They
If you’ve lived in America all your life and don’t realize that calling a grown man, a Black one at that, a “little monkey” then that’s on you. And you “what’s the fuss about” ppl compound the problem because you can’t understand or appreciate that ppl of Aryan decent have been called monkeys, gator bait, and the n-word for hundreds of years. Peep the early Warner Brothers cartoons that portray Blacks that look eerily similar to monkeys. Clueless. I wish the schools would dedicate me time in existing the real history of those taste we harshly throughout our history. Not to shame them but to try and explain why some are sensitive to words like this. Teach it so hopefully we don’t have to these conversations over and over again.
Do you have any feelings about Flipper the Dolphin??? Did you like the movie Blazing Saddles?
Wow… Aryan was supposed to be African. My apologies. Crazy that it substituted that for Aryan. hmmmm.
@They
A dolphin once tried to jump my ex. She was a garden top by nature, it turns out. She was probably giving off they vibe. Dolphins might be smart, but they have to learn that no means no. Blazing Saddle? Hilarious.
We don’t, so let’s not.
@knicksfancavsfan Cosell vehemently denied any racial overtones to that statement to whoever asked him, citing he called his grandkids “little monkeys” out of love since the day they were born. He also had a close personal relationship with Muhammad Ali until they say he died, who had zero problems with that statement.
Everything deserves context and not everything needs to be taught in school.
@Doral
There are plenty of ppl that say things that they dying think are offensive. Intent doesn’t factor into being offensive. He might well have a kind heart and he grew up in a different time but it still was wrong. And spate me with “U have a Black friend”. His Black friend was one of the most famous ppl in the world and not a bad friend to have being a sports announcer. And if racial history isn’t supposed to be taught in school then where and when?? Quite honestly I have a huge problem with any curriculum that wants to force feed me the history of other nations, the good and the Bad, yet shys away from yelling it’s own truth. Never did I think I’d learn more about true American history than by watching Taylor Sheridan TV shows or similar. I didn’t even know what the “Black Wall Street” was until a rapper named his label that, and I questioned why?
Air Bud would’ve made a hellava manager
Yeah, sounds like AM21 has never held a management position in any profession….
I think you’re a moron.
as long as they had enough bubble gum, bailing wire and duct tape to keep the pitching staff from arms falling completely off.
“Roberts should have 4 rings by now with the rosters he has” -bitter fans
How much money will be deferred?
Wouldn’t matter in terms of the CBT… managers don’t count towards the calculated figure.
@Gwynning
We know but we want to know how much is differed. $1.00? $100 Billion?
You mean you wanna know, I couldn’t give a rat’s astronaut. Haha
@Gwynning
Given MLB has turned into an Excel spreadsheet, it’s important for us data analysts to know this stuff. Do they still play games IRL?
No York and gotcha Killswitch, engaged.
It was just a joke, I know that managers contracts are not the same as players. It was a reference with how much money the Dodgers have been deferring.
Does he require deferred compensation too?
Roberts is a bit light in my estimation regardless of the W/L record. Bruce Boche is clearly #1. I think Skip Shumaker would be better and he’s available. Move Roberts to assistant GM and give him a nice pay raise.
@They
For what purpose?
His father’s words:
“We are who we are. … That was one of our philosophies as a family. We have no choice where we’re going, but we have a choice about what we do when we get there.”
Good for him, playing for and managing Championship teams.
Roberts has a lifetime 851-507 as a manager, giving him a .627 winning percentage. That’s the highest winning percentage of any manager in MLB history with at least 1000 games managed in his career and translates to approximately 102 wins in a 162-game season.
Doc is a super nice guy, great family too. Good post hayzee
The Rangers and Reds have managers. The Dodgers have a puppet.
What should he do to earn your esteemed respect?
@Ranger
Couldn’t agree more with your statement. The Dodgers should consider going a different route. I’d nominate Justin Turner to replace Roberts.
He isn’t getting replaced after a season like he just had, you are clueless.
Just give Roberts a bronze statue and a $10M parachute and let him retire at the top of his game. JT could manage the team and deserves it and is a fan favorite too.
Robert’s outmanaged the league in the ’24 postseason. Some criticism of him has been justified historically, but he was nearly perfect en route to the Series win
“Counsell signed his $40MM deal with Chicago on the open market after playing out the final season of his deal with Milwaukee and had a number of teams vying for his services as the Guardians, Astros, and Mets joined the incumbent Brewers in vying for his services before he ultimately landed on the north side.”
Hellen Keller could lead the Dodgers to 90 wins, but go on and spend more money.
What have you done to match the accomplishments of Helen Keller or Dave Roberts?
He is no Derek Shelton, check his win percentage.
Leave it to Roberts and Prior (San Diegans) to help get LA a championship…hahaha
prior is great at teaching injuries to pitchers.
Well they can buy everyone so why would the manager be exempt from these pigs’ greed? Spoon fed manager given the keys to the world’s most expensive car and any idiot could do his job with that roster of ringers, the only challenge is not royally screwing it up (which he’d basically done in every legit season prior to the team finally spending enough money to put them over the top).
@ mickey solis; Good gawd, calm down.
I love Mickey & Co’s booty hurt. Doze feels….
I personally never attended a game to see the manager. Is there a system that rates managers like “wins above replacement” for players? My instincts tell me Roberts is average to slightly above average but not great. I do think he should have 4 or more WS Championships given the talent he has been given.
The team was projected to win 103 games based on talent last year, and won 98. Not sure if Dave Roberts is a mastermind manager or not. I think teams that constantly over-perform from projections and punch above their weight class should be considered to have great managers.
Well, considering that all that talent was on the injured list for a good part of the season and in some cases didn’t even participate in the playoffs….
His main job is not game management; as others have noted, that’s set by others. His main job is keeping the players engaged and happy with the screwy and personally unfulfilling usage patterns dictated by the front office. And no one does that better than him.
Tommy Lasorda did more with less, and he wasn’t a great in game manager IMO.
For the uninitiated… here’s one of my favorite Tommy clips. Rated R for language!
youtu.be/AvFMEoKI7eE?si=eEIzjHHQk1DHUzrV
@They
It’s such a bad comparison. The game has changed so much since then, and the players have gotten much greater sense of entitlement and power.
Peanut vendors were entertainers & could throw you a bag from 50 ft away & were more accurate than most major league infielders too‼️
The hotdog vendor could likely manage that absurdly stacked powerhouse team to damn near the same results.
Do they still have hot dog vendors at Dodger Stadium?
You can talk all you want about analytics. They provide approximate probabilities of certain actions. But everything is conditional and those probabilities are a composite of different outcomes. There is plenty of wiggle room. I would be willing to bet that any manager who lets the analytics drive every single decision will fail miserably. There are so many compounding variables involved and the manager is the one person most capable of taking those into account. If you tried somehow to create a model that incorporated every single factor and then used it to make decisions you would still not maximize your success. That is simply because every situation involves one man trying to succeed and another man trying to prevent success. Neither of those men are perfect. That’s what makes sports so great.
Here is an idea, Trade Roberts and Mookie Betts to the Yankees for Aaron Judge and Aaron Boone, I’d bet on the Dodgers to win another 3 to 4 WS too.
Honestly, if the Yankees just traded Juan Soto for Max Fried, Devin Williams, Paul Goldschmidt, and Cody Bellinger, they would probably win a World Series.
dodgers would immediately release Aaron Boone.
100 years for 1 trillion dollars. To be paid to his kids, kids,great grand kids. Over the next 100 years. Regardless of occupation.
Dodgers won despite Dave Roberts’ mismanagement. Dodgers would have more title if Roberts could actually manage a pitching staff. The Dodgers GM and their talent won them the Championship, not Roberts. The Dodgers will give Roberts an extension, and that’s understandable, but his mismanagement may cost them if their talent can not bail him out.
He can’t manage a pitching staff? What?
The pitchers were all injured. That’s not on Roberts. He did great getting the team to hold it together despite all those pitching in juries. I think you forgot to actually watch 2024 before posting.
it is on Roberts. keep running out Kershaw when he’s clearly out of gas isn’t helping.
What year are we talking about here?
every year. Kershaw is just an example. burns through a pitching staff and by august they are injured. the A’s in the 70s did this, to an extremes,. won some games but the pitchers were toast.
Once again more proof that lots of fans say they love the analytics game, until they see it played. When it doesn’t work, it’s all the manager’s fault.
fans are managing games at Chavez ravine?
Oh man, you and the point aren’t even in the same timezone.
Roberts’ pitcher mismanagement? Guess you didn’t watch the last couple innings of Game 5 of the World Series a couple months ago….
Or Game 6 of the 2020 World Series.
That and the cheating put forth by Cora with the Astros and Red Sox.
Is this MLB Trade Rumors or Breitbart? It’s hard to tell with all the comments questioning the intelligence of a Black man.
I imagine if a white guy was heading a team that could’ve conceivably won half of the previous 8-10 WS and didn’t that he’d be having people questioning his aptitude for the position too
What have you managed in your lifetime? Be honest.
I don’t care one way or the other on Roberts. I don’t stay up to watch Dodgers games and not a fan of the Doyers or any other NL West team. I just don’t pretend to put words in the mouths of others when they’re clearly stating what their complaints are as fans. Is that really so tough to do?
Read the comments. It’s obvious where some of these good ol’ boys are coming from.
I scrolled through and read every comment, Kabong, and nowhere did I see any epithets. Why did you decide to make it a racial thing, homie?!? He’s half-Japanese too, did somebody besmirch his heritage or something?!?
I’m of partial Asian descent too, just like Doc. You couldn’t be more wrong, Kabong. YOU made it a race thing. Just YOU. Go to your room and ponder where YOU went wrong. I normally enjoy your posts, but this one started off terribly and isn’t exactly course correcting. No need to respond.
Good night Kabong.
As if gettin workers to do their jobs is easy….
At what age do deferred contracts not make sense?
Age is completely irrelevant to deferred compensation.
sign Roberts to a 5 year deal, expect one ws win, maybe. He just not the manger in the regular season & the playoffs.
Did the ’24 season not happen?
only took the dodgers 10+ years to win a full season World Series with the money they spend on talent.
Flags fly forever. Nobody is going to remember any teams’ WS championship payroll amount in a decade.
A five-year extension is probably in the cards, and I’d say at least one championship in that period is a reasonable expectation for Dave’s tenure.
Why….?…He hasn’t delivered as much as Aaron Boone has….
His in-game management is as good or bad as the next guy. He has great players. Most importantly he has the respect of those players and with the media. Not easy to do.
Why wouldn’t LA extend Roberts? Okay, I know he has the horses but one can’t argue with the success they’ve had with Roberts at the helm. And I discount the playoff defeats. In a short series almost, anything can happen. To wit, in 2022 and 2023 the NL’s sixth seed, Phillies and D-Backs respectively, made it to the World Series. Oh, and LA might even be better this year than last year. Having Edmon for the entire year coupled with the Snell addition ain’t chopped liver.
Roberts was extended once and will be again because the front office likes the way he plays their roster and implements their game planning. Many fans seem to believe the criteria for hiring and firing managers should be different, but I can’t imagine where they get that idea.
Is his salary all deferred as well? Not a big Dave Roberts fan. Literally anyone could manage this team to the postseason.