Once roster is set, extending Roberts an offseason priority for Dodgers

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It can be challenging to evaluate how good Major League managers are at their jobs. Unlike with player performance, there's no metric that those on the outside looking in can use to understand the influence that a particular person has in a big league clubhouse.

Take the BBWAA's Manager of the Year Award, for example. In recent years, voters have favored managers whose teams overachieved in some compelling way or otherwise took a big step forward from the previous season. And there's nothing wrong with that -- but it does mean that consistently successful managers such as the Dodgers' Dave Roberts tend to get overlooked come award season.

Roberts won Manager of the Year in 2016, his first season leading Los Angeles. He has received votes in every year since then -- including three third-place votes in 2024 -- and finished in second place twice, but he's yet to win again.

Regardless of what awards voters decide, the Dodgers know how valuable Roberts is to their organization. Once the front office has constructed next year's roster to satisfaction, the next item on the offseason to-do list is likely to extend Roberts, whose current contract ends after the 2025 season.

"We've talked to him, like, 'Hey, let's get our team in a good place, and then we're going to sit down and talk,'" general manager Brandon Gomes said last week at the Winter Meetings in Dallas. "So the expectation is, let's get through all of this player stuff, and then we can have conversations."

In nine years at the helm, Roberts has led the Dodgers to an 851-506 record in the regular season. His .627 career winning percentage is the best all time among those who have managed at least 1,000 games.

He's always had well-constructed rosters to work with, yes, but the talent at hand is just one part of the equation. It's about how that talent is used, shaped and developed, something that comes with time -- and for Roberts, that evolution has been especially apparent in the postseason.

Roberts' Dodgers have made the postseason in every year he's managed, winning four National League pennants and two World Series titles, but back-to-back NL Division Series exits in 2022-23 contributed to a reputation as a regular-season powerhouse that falls short in the playoffs. Roberts found some vindication in the '24 postseason run that culminated in the Dodgers' eighth championship.

Despite Los Angeles' $1 billion offseason led by the Shohei Ohtani signing, the Dodgers faced plenty of adversity, mainly stemming from injuries. The rotation was hit the hardest, resulting in the team using only three traditional starting pitchers in the postseason and bridging the gap with bullpen games.

The situation was far from ideal, but Roberts was able to push the right buttons when it mattered. That was one aspect of the past season where the value of his managerial experience and his understanding of the roster was clear.

"To be quite honest, the tough thing about a bullpen game is you have to make more decisions," Roberts said at the Winter Meetings. "And the more decisions you make, the more chances there are for you to be wrong in betting on the person for a particular night."

Beyond the game-to-game strategy, Roberts' attitude was also key during a trying season. While the magnitude of injuries could easily have been demoralizing, the Dodgers' skipper continually instilled confidence in the team.

Roberts' message, according to Gomes: "Hey guys, no matter which guy we lose, we are good enough to win this thing."

"I think that’s as impressive of a job as we’ve seen," Gomes continued. "I know our expectations are high and we’re expected to win, but the challenges that this team went through with Dave leading the helm is really impressive, to come out the other side as champions.”

With the front office still eyeing roster improvements for 2025 and three months remaining before the Dodgers open the regular season in Tokyo on March 18, Roberts' eventual extension may not happen until Spring Training. When Roberts was previously extended in '22, the agreement did not come until two weeks before Opening Day.