The Dodgers are anticipated to debate a contract extension with longtime supervisor Dave Roberts this offseason, per a report from Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Occasions. Roberts’ present contract is slated to run out following the 2025 season.
It’s hardly a shock that the Dodgers would look to lock up their skipper earlier than spring coaching begins. Membership brass acknowledged final month (as famous by The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya on the time) that the perimeters had not but mentioned an extension within the aftermath of the membership’s World Sequence championship however was fast so as to add that he hopes to maintain Roberts within the dugout long-term. Even apart from these feedback, groups usually want to keep away from having managers play out the ultimate yr of their contract with out an extension in hand in hopes of keep away from a “lame duck” state of affairs, and it’s troublesome to argue that Roberts’s efficiency hasn’t merited an extension.
Since becoming a member of the Dodgers as supervisor again in 2016, Roberts has led the membership to 9 consecutive postseason appearances, eight division titles, 4 NL Pennants, and two World Sequence championships. Ignoring the 60-game 2020 marketing campaign the place the Dodgers went 43-17, the membership has by no means gained lower than 91 video games in a season underneath Roberts’ steerage, and after successful the NL Supervisor of the Yr award in 2016, he’s subsequently been a finalist for the award two extra occasions and acquired votes in each season of his time on the helm in Los Angeles. General, Roberts has a lifetime 851-507 file as a supervisor, giving him a .627 successful proportion. That’s the very best successful proportion of any supervisor in MLB historical past with at the least 1,000 video games managed in his profession and interprets to roughly 102 wins in a 162-game season.
Given the Dodgers’ need to maintain Roberts within the fold long-term and his phenomenal work throughout his tenure as L.A.’s skipper, Harris goes on to counsel {that a} record-shattering extension may very well be on the desk for the longtime skipper. Final offseason, Craig Counsell signed a record-breaking extension with the Cubs that assured him $40M over 5 years. Counsell is broadly thought-about to be among the many greatest managers within the recreation in the meanwhile, however he’s by no means led a group to the World Sequence or gained a Supervisor of the Yr award. In different phrases, Roberts’ resume is way more sturdy than Counsell’s was final winter, and it’s not arduous to think about a high-spending membership just like the Dodgers rewarding their skipper with a record-breaking deal.
After all, that’s under no circumstances assured to happen. Counsell signed his $40M cope with Chicago on the open market after taking part in out the ultimate season of his cope with Milwaukee and had various groups vying for his companies because the Guardians, Astros, and Mets joined the incumbent Brewers in vying for his companies earlier than he in the end landed on the north aspect. That stands in distinction to Purple Sox skipper Alex Cora, who appeared poised to comply with in Counsell’s footsteps and take a look at the open market earlier than in the end opting to signal a three-year extension in Boston that assured him round $21.75M whole.
Cora doesn’t fairly evaluate to Roberts when it comes to resume, with only one World Sequence championship and a .536 successful proportion underneath his belt in six seasons as supervisor in Boston. Even so, the extension between the Purple Sox and their well-regarded skipper got here in at simply over half the whole assure the Cubs supplied Counsell and with a decrease yearly wage. That end result at the least left the door open to the likelihood that Counsell’s record-setting cope with Chicago was extra of an outlier brought on by a number of aggressive suitors slightly than a brand new norm for supervisor salaries within the league.
