The season will mark one full decade for Dave Roberts as manager of the Dodgers, a decorated run in which Roberts has led the team to eight division titles, four National League pennants, two World Series titles and more regular-season wins than any other franchise in baseball.
On Monday, Roberts added one more distinction to his tenure.
As had been long expected this offseason, the Dodgers finally locked down Roberts — who has the best winning percentage in MLB history among non-Negro League managers — to a contract extension, agreeing to a four-year deal that includes an unprecedented $8.1-million annual salary, according to a person with knowledge of the situation but not authorized to speak publicly.
The contract did not exceed the five-year, $40-million deal the Chicago Cubs gave Craig Counsell last year to lure the former Brewers manager away from Milwaukee, with the total value of Roberts’ deal coming in at $32.4 million.
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But it does represent a significantly enhanced commitment from the team to Roberts, who will top Counsell’s $8-million yearly salary and bypass the ability to test the waters of managerial free agency next offseason, when his previous deal with the Dodgers — which was due to pay him $4 million this season — was set to expire.
Despite leading the team to its first championship in a generation in 2020, when the Dodgers ended a 32-year World Series drought in that season’s pandemic-shortened campaign, Roberts began last season on something of a hot seat. The team had failed to repeat its title in 2021, when a 106-win club flamed out in the NL Championship Series. The next two years were abject disappointments, with the team getting upset in back-to-back NL Division Series eliminations.
Last October, the Dodgers were on the verge of a third straight early exit, facing elimination just four games into the postseason during an NLDS showdown against the rival San Diego Padres. At the time, there was much speculation that Roberts’ job might have been on the line.
Then, the 52-year-old skipper did some of his best work in a Dodgers uniform, helping lead an injury-ravaged roster past the Padres before rolling to another championship with defeats of the New York Mets in the NLCS and New York Yankees in the World Series.
All along, players credited his calming influence as a key driver behind their October march. As the Dodgers advanced deeper into the postseason, many pointed back to a mid-September clubhouse meeting Roberts called in Atlanta — when the team was reeling from the loss of ace pitcher Tyler Glasnow to a season-ending elbow injury — as a crucial turning point in their run to a championship.
“He manages this club based on the guys in this room,” third baseman Max Muncy said last October. “He doesn’t do it off a spreadsheet. He doesn’t do it off what someone tells him. He walks around and he has conversations with everybody.”
Roberts’ resume now speaks for itself: He is one of just five managers in MLB history with five 100-plus-win seasons, to go along with an NL Manager of the Year award in 2016. His 56 postseason victories rank sixth all-time, and trail Bruce Bochy of the Texas Rangers by just one for the lead among active skippers. No one with at least 1,000 games of managerial experience has topped his .627 career winning percentage (his win-loss ledger reads 851-507). And, given the roster talent that will be at his disposal over the duration of his new deal, he appears to be on a likely Hall of Fame path, on track to join Walter Alston and Tommy Lasorda as potentially the third Dodgers manager to be inducted into Cooperstown.
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Against that backdrop, Roberts and the Dodgers began negotiating a new deal shortly before the start of spring training. While Roberts was widely expected to rival Counsell’s record-setting contract from last offseason, it took until Monday for the sides to finally find middle ground on a deal that will keep him with the club through the 2028 season.
With his old deal up at the end of this season, there was the potential for Roberts to test the market, where he would have undoubtedly been a highly coveted commodity across the league. But all along, he made clear that his goal was to remain in Los Angeles long-term, repeatedly reiterating this spring that he was hopeful of getting a new deal done before the end of camp. Dodgers brass felt similarly, crediting Roberts’ steadying hand as a key factor behind last year’s World Series run.
“I think there were times during the year, with some of the injuries we had, where it was a little bit deflating,” team president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said. “And I think Doc did a great job of getting in front of that and pumping some enthusiasm and optimism into the group.”
Thus, the sides finally found some middle ground in negotiations, and struck a deal to keep Roberts in Los Angeles for the foreseeable future — ensuring that, one decade into a decorated partnership, neither he nor the team will be splitting up any time soon.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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