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 Collection 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 choose to keep away from having managers play out the ultimate 12 months of their contract with out an extension in hand in hopes of keep away from a “lame duck” scenario, 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 Collection championships. Ignoring the 60-game 2020 marketing campaign the place the Dodgers went 43-17, the membership has by no means received lower than 91 video games in a season beneath Roberts’s steering, and after profitable the NL Supervisor of the Yr award in 2016 he’s subsequently been a finalist for the award two extra instances and acquired votes in each season of his time on the helm in Los Angeles. Total, Roberts has a lifetime 851-507 as a supervisor, giving him a .627 profitable share. That’s the best profitable share of any supervisor in MLB historical past with not less than 1000 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 $40MM over 5 years. Counsell is extensively thought-about to be among the many greatest managers within the sport in the meanwhile, however he’s by no means led a crew to the World Collection or received a Supervisor of the Yr award. In different phrases, Roberts’s resume is far more strong than Counsell’s was final winter, and it’s not onerous to think about a high-spending membership just like the Dodgers rewarding their skipper with a record-breaking deal.
In fact, that’s under no circumstances assured to happen. Counsell signed his $40MM cope with Chicago on the open market after taking part in out the ultimate season of his cope with Milwaukee and had a variety of 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 facet. That stands in distinction to Pink 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 $21.75MM whole.
Cora doesn’t fairly evaluate to Roberts by way of resume, with only one World Collection championship and a .536 profitable share beneath his belt in six seasons as supervisor in Boston. Even so, the extension between the Pink Sox and their well-regarded skipper got here in at simply over half the overall assure the Cubs supplied Counsell and with a decrease yearly wage. That final result not less than left the door open to the chance that Counsell’s record-setting cope with Chicago was extra of an outlier brought on by a number of aggressive suitors somewhat than a brand new norm for supervisor salaries within the league.
