- The Los Angeles Dodgers have been the class of Major League Baseball the last few years, with two World Series wins in the last five seasons.
- Dave Roberts has been at the helm for both wins, and is going into the final year of his deal in his 10th year with the Dodgers.
- The two sides are reportedly close on an extension that will keep Roberts as the Dodgers’ manager for a long time.
The Los Angeles Dodgers continue to pace Major League Baseball. They’re the reigning World Series champions, and the Dodgers are looking for their third championship in six seasons.
They’ve made some moves on the field in the offseason. But none might be as important as signing manager Dave Roberts to an extension, which they are reportedly close on doing.
Roberts is One of Seven to Win the World Series as a Player and a Manager
The news was reported early on March 7:
The Dodgers are looking to ink Roberts to an extension that would make him the highest-paid manager in all of baseball. It would be fitting for Roberts, who is one of seven people to ever win the World Series as a player and a manager. He won the World Series in 2004 as a player with the Boston Red Sox, stealing a base in the ALCS against the New York Yankees in Game 4 to help extend the series.
As a manager, Roberts was a bench coach for San Diego from 2011 to 2015, and then took the manager job for the Dodgers. Since 2016, Roberts has won two World Series in 2020 and 2024, and they lost two other times in 2017 and 2018. His .627 win percentage is the best in the history of both the American and National Leagues, and only Texas’ Bruce Bochy has more postseason wins than Roberts, who has 56 to 57 for Bochy.
The 52-year-old Roberts won Manager of the Year in his first year in Los Angeles in 2016, and he was 43-17 in the pandemic-shortened MLB season, which is when they also beat Tampa Bay in the World Series. In the other eight seasons, the Dodgers haven’t won less than 91 games under Roberts, and have reached the 100-win mark five times! Even in preseason action, Roberts has the Dodgers as a popular spring training bet.
Roberts will likely eclipse the deal signed by Craig Counsell of the Chicago Cubs, who signed a five-year deal worth $40 million in November 2023.
How Much Will Keeping Roberts Help the Dodgers?
The Dodgers top the World Series odds for 2025 once again, and they made waves in the offseason by signing pitchers Blake Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Roki Sasaki. They also re-signed longtime Dodger, pitcher Clayton Kershaw, as well as Tanner Scott and outfielder Teoscar Hernandez.
But Roberts is the straw that stirs the drink for the Dodgers, and he’s loved by players, as well as the head office. He does an excellent job, along with his staff, of managing his pitchers, especially his bullpen. Roberts also does an impressive job of keeping stars Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, and Freddie Freeman happy, and if you can do that with your team’s best players, everyone else will fall in line.
For all the money that the Dodgers splash on their roster, keeping Roberts in Los Angeles might be their most important move. You can expect to see the Dodgers at the top of the National League West odds all season, and likely the World Series odds as well.
