Dodgers: Dave Roberts Still Not Backing Down on World Series Guarantee

On Thursday morning, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts joined Jenny Cavnar on SiriusXM MLB Network Radio’s “Unassisted” to talk about L.A.’s historic 111-win season and how he’s feeling heading into the postseason.

After discussing Los Angeles’ plans for the five-day break before their first postseason game — everyone was encouraged to spend Thursday with their families and disconnect from baseball, and then they’ll play intrasquad games over the next three days — Cavnar asked Roberts about his preseason guarantee of a Dodgers World Series title and asked him if he stands by it.

“I do. … It’s a testament to my belief in the organization, the players, as a group.”

Roberts says there’s a more practical reason for his statement, too:

“If there’s a manager who doesn’t believe his team’s going to win the World Series, I want to play them.”

Now, there’s a difference between believing your team is going to win the World Series and repeatedly guaranteeing it, but Roberts’ point is accurate that it would be silly for a manager like him with a team like the 2022 Dodgers to say anything other than “we’re gonna win it all.” Los Angeles won 106 games last year and then added Freddie Freeman, replaced Corey Seager with a full season of Trea Turner, got Mookie Betts healthy, and didn’t get any at-bats to Billy-Steve McRaley Jr. or whatever you want to call the seven-headed underachieving monster that batted .156 with a .521 OPS and 122 strikeouts in 347 plate appearances last season.

The first couple steps are complete. The 2022 Dodgers earned home-field advantage throughout the postseason by virtue of being the best team in baseball. Now they need to win 11 more games over the next four weeks to make Doc’s guarantee come true.

Have you subscribed to our YouTube Channel yet? Subscribe and hit that notification bell to stay up to date on all the latest Dodgers news, rumors, interviews, live streams, and more!