It’s been a busy offseason in Los Angeles this winter as the reigning World Series champions have worked hard to improve their roster, bringing in high-profile free agents like Blake Snell and Tanner Scott while also securing the services of 23-year-old phenom Roki Sasaki in international free agency. Frustrations from fans around the game led MLB commissioner Rob Manfred to speak out against the assertion from some fans that the Dodgers and their aggressive spending are “ruining” baseball.
For all the work the Dodgers have gotten done this winter, however, one major piece of the puzzle remains uncompleted: an extension for longtime manager Dave Roberts. Roberts’ contract expires after the 2025 season, and the club’s front office officials have made clear that they intend to keep their veteran skipper around beyond the end of his current contract. In an appearance on the Baseball Tonight podcast with ESPN’s Buster Olney, Roberts revealed that the sides have “just started talking” about an extension, and while his primary focus is on the start of Spring Training he suggested he’s hopeful a deal will get done.
“Hopefully, everything takes care of itself,” Roberts said on the podcast. “But it’s about value. And I love this organization, but yeah, you want to feel your value. Absolutely.”
It’s hard to deny Roberts’s value to the organization. He’s been at the helm for two World Series championships since taking over as skipper prior to the 2016 season, and his Dodgers have made two additional trips to the World Series in 2017 and 2018. Meanwhile, they’ve been dominant in the regular season for his entire tenure with the club: since Roberts took over as manager in L.A. the club has posted an incredible 851-705 record. His .627 career winning percentage as a big league manager (which also includes a one-game stint as skipper of the Padres in 2015) is the best of anyone with at least 1000 MLB games managed, and he’s finished in the top 5 of NL Manager of the Year award voting seven times throughout his career including a win in 2016 as well as second place finishes in both 2017 and 2022.
That Roberts wants to “feel [his] value” when it comes to his next contract is hardly a surprise given that resume, and there’s been an upward trend in salaries for managers around the game recently. Last offseason, longtime Brewers skipper Craig Counsell headed into free agency after not signing a contract extension prior to or during the 2023 season. Once a free agent, Counsell was courted by a number of clubs before ultimately landing with the Cubs on a deal that guaranteed him a record-setting $40MM over five years.
The deal made Counsell the highest-paid manager in the game, and set the stage for well-regarded Red Sox manager Alex Cora to enter the 2024 season without an extension in hand. Cora ultimately extended with the club on a three-year deal that guaranteed him roughly $21.75MM back in July, a deal that seemingly solidified the market for the game’s top managers in the $7-8MM range annually. Roberts is more decorated than either Cora or Counsell as a manager, and while no specifics surrounding the negotiations have been reported at this point it would seem reasonable to expect Roberts to be seeking a deal that at least falls into that range.
While its theoretically possible that Roberts could follow in Cora’s or even Counsell’s footsteps and hold off on signing an extension until later in the 2024 season or even until he reaches free agency this winter, given the Dodgers’ comfort with high-dollar expenditures and comments on both sides of the negotiation suggesting that Roberts staying in the fold is the preferred outcome, it seems more likely that the sides will be able to iron out a deal, perhaps even before the club heads to Tokyo to kick off the 2025 season against the Cubs next month.