Dodgers News: Dave Roberts Snubbed in NL Manager of the Year Voting
MLB announced the candidates for the 2023 NL Manager of the Year and it did not include LA Dodgers manager Dave Roberts.
Instead of Roberts, the nominations went to Craig Counsell of the Brewers, Skip Schumaker of the Marlins, and Brian Snitker of the Braves.
Now, depending on who you ask, this news comes as a bit of a shock.
Award Qualifiers:
Before I upset some people by making a case for Doc, a few orders of business.
First, this award does not take into account playoff performance. Voters submit their ballot prior to the end of the regular season. So, the Dodgers getting swept, and Roberts’ decisions in the NLDS do not get considered
Second, the award goes to two managers, one from each league. This means Dave only has to compete with 14 other managers, not 29.
Dodgers’ Struggles in 2023.
Ever since the Dodgers hired Dave Roberts ahead of the 2016 season, people said he received the keys to a Ferrari. Now, the Dodgers have had one of the most talented rosters year in and year out, but Doc does play an important role in the team’s sustained success.
This year alone, the team started off the year with a season-ending injury to shortstop Gavin Lux. The team had signed Miguel Rojas to be a backup, but this injury thrust him immediately into the starting job.
After losing Tyler Anderson and Andrew Heaney in the offseason, the Dodgers’ rotational depth looked thinner than it had in years past. They were to be without frontline anchor Walker Buehler, but further injuries to Tony Gonsolin, Dustin May, and Ryan Pepiot decimated the rotation quickly.
The signing of Noah Syndergaard did not work out for the club, and the club traded him at the deadline for platoon bat Amed Rosario. Clayton Kershaw, who started off the year looking like his elite self, missed six weeks dealing with a shoulder injury. An injury that required surgery this past Friday.
Lastly, the team parted ways with Julio Urias after his arrest for felony domestic violence.
The club had the most number of days spent on the IL (2,470) and the 6th highest payroll on the IL in 2023. They started 16 different rookies at different points throughout the year and relied on the likes of Lance Lynn and Ryan Yarbrough to stabilize the rotation.
Dave’s Qualifications
Through all this turmoil, this team had a historically great offense scoring 906 runs, and would go on to win 100 games. Dave Roberts had arguably his best season as the skipper for the Dodgers. On the way to winning the 11th NL West title in 12 years, Dave pulled all the right levers with pinch-hitters, bullpen moves, openers, closers, lineup construction, etc.
Say anything you want about Doc, but not even being nominated for the award is astounding.
Required Reading
Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
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This is absolutely mind blowing to me. Dave Roberts not being at least top 3 in manager of the year voting is absolutely bat shit insane. The guy lost his entire rotation and managed a team that had David Peralta and Jason Heyward taking crucial at bats. Nobody expected this team to win the division and Dave led them to another 100 win season and yet another NL West title. What adversity did Brian Snitker and the Braves face? Losing Max Fried for a couple weeks? Ridiculous. This was Dave’s best managerial job and this is a massive snub.
Yes, Dave Roberts not even in the running is pure BS. Sure, he has a few problems handling pitching changes, but with all the injuries on the Dodgers pitching staff this year, and other injuries, plus Friedman’s salary dump, I think that Roberts did one hell of a job winning 100 games this year.
2023 was a miracle performance with your hands tied behind your back . I’m proud of your effort. Looking forward to opening day . A true blue fan since 1958
Phil Burnett
My first Dodger game was July 6 1958 at the Coliseum, age 8. So i too go way back. Dave Roberts is way down there with Mattingly as a rock bottom poor mgr. He blows the rotation and the pen in Oct. He was ATROCIOUS in game 3, glued to the seat as, down 2 games to zero, Lynn gave up 3 HRs and one long foul all and Roberts STILL sat on his *ss to watch Lynn give up the 4th HR. Then he put in a guy with a 6 era to walk the bases and left HIM in too. What an IMBECILE. HE CHOKES ON OCT BASEBALL. 6 YRS OF THIS SHAT. You must hate the Dodgers, or are clueless. Kinda like Dave. I wish he’d resign out of embarrassment. Mgr of the year my butt.
If that’s the case Bobby Cox should have been fired years before for his pitiful decisions in the playoffs year after year Are you kidding me?Maddux Glavine and Smoltz and one world series
Not using Pepiot was galactically stupid.
Yes! Yes! Yes! The dude is a f*¢^ing joke with managing a pitching staff, especially in the playoffs. Did you watch Bruce Boche skillfully manage the Ranger’s pitching? Masterful. Maybe the Dodgers can hire Boche.
Roberts is brain dead as a manager. Nothing but a puppet for the FO. Who would nominate a clown for manager of the year?!
Robert’s socks he should be managing tall
Wow.. I have been a loyal dodger fan for many many years. So I would agree that Dave Roberts is a average skipper. He is a decent manager of everything but the pitching. Awful pitching manager.Bad choices for relievers also bad timing for putting in relievers. He just doesn’t understand pitching and how to manage a game from the pitching perspective.He also hasn’t been very good at testing his alllstars and I think he could mix his lineup card up more.. I mean jeez mookie played so much this 2023 .. Still Dave has him battling 1st even though we have the division wrapped up by more then 15 games … Why not rest mookie a few games and put him battling 8th so he doesn’t burnout and disappears in postseason also freeman.. Wait we got swept in 1st round correct? Maybe our guys just burned out.. Regular season stats don’t mean nothing other then standings…Rest your stars some if you have the division all wrapped up… Ro erts tries to help his guys get better stats and burns them out… Also like I said Dave Roberts has been awful when it comes to pitching.. Just awful….
Roberts rested ‘his stars’ in 2022, lost last four games of regular season going into October and got wiped out by SD. Tried a different approach this year, but with same results. Unfortunately, Roberts relies/trusts the computer guys too much. What did Texas do that was different? Let Bochy manage the game and his players. Yeah, Bochy would glance down every once in a while to his ‘cheat sheet’ the computer guys gave him, but he managed his players by eye; not computer. That is the kind of manager we need. Roberts will never be that kind of manager. I would wager that most of the MLB managers would have the same win/loss record as Roberts with the talent this team has year-in and year-out. It’s October that counts, and Roberts can’t do it. Unless, of course, the manager of the opposing team (Tampa) pulls his starter (Snell) early while the Dodgers hitters have absolutely no answer. 2020 still feels like a gimme…
And yes, Dave Roberts is a sabermetrics type of a manager. I personally hate that stuff, you also have to use you gut in decisions.
We’re stuck with Roberts because he is a good boy and does what he is told by the FO.
A loser is a loser and he needs to go. Bruce Bouchy was available and we got stuck with this joke?