Dodgers, Dave Roberts Have Started Discussing Contract Extension

The Los Angeles Dodgers have spared no expense this winter acquiring talent, but the team will likely spend a considerable amount of money on manager Dave Roberts’ contract extension.

On the Baseball Tonight podcast, Roberts revealed the contract negotiations with the Dodgers have begun.

“We have just started talking,” Roberts told ESPN’s Buster Olney. “I’m hopeful, but I’m focused on winning games. I want to focus on getting better as a manager, getting our guys prepared for Opening Day, for this great season, to win another championship. Hopefully, everything takes care of itself. It’s about value and I just love this organization.”

Last month, general manager Brandon Gomes said the discernible: The Dodgers want Roberts in L.A.

“It’s something we’re going to address here in the coming weeks,” said Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes on The New York Post’s The Show podcast this week. “We want Dave here. He’s been incredible.”

Roberts is coming off his ninth year managing the L.A. organization, which ended in his ninth consecutive postseason appearance and second World Series title. He is the winningest manager in MLB with a .627 clip, indicating there is no skipper better than Roberts in the regular season.

Roberts has overseen five 100-win seasons with the Dodgers, while only Joe McCarthy and Bobby Cox have more. But the pressure to win is always there, and it was only when Roberts won his second championship with the Dodgers that his critics appeared to be silenced.

He pulled all the right levers throughout the postseason, and unlike many seasons prior, the Dodgers skipper did not have a healthy team. Roberts had to work with three starting pitchers and an overworked bullpen. He had to deploy all the right players to help the Dodgers get over their postseason hump.

The pitching staff was the Dodgers’ weakness heading into October, but managed to keep the San Diego Padres scoreless for 24 consecutive innings in the NLDS.

“I thought he was surgical in Game 4 and Game 5,” said Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman. “I thought he had the right feel and pulse for when to make a move, who to go to — and even with that, [Alex Vesia] had the soreness in the oblique and he didn’t miss a beat.”

Although the Dodgers have left their tattered postseason reputation in the past, Roberts will be tasked with managing one of the best rosters in the history of baseball.

Photo Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images