The Dodgers’ postseason run ended much sooner than expected, and yet the team could respond to its surprise loss in the NLDS by moving from coach David Roberts does not appear to be under consideration. Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times reports that Roberts is “expected” to return to the bench next season.
The news isn’t too surprising, considering Roberts has yet to start the three-year contract extension he signed last March. 2022 was the final season of Roberts’ previous contract with the team, and his new deal will keep him as coach through the end of the 2025 season.
Through seven seasons in Los Angeles, the 50-year-old Roberts has enjoyed enough success to put him on the path to the Hall of Fame. Roberts is 632-380 over those seven years, and as Harris points out, Roberts’ .632 winning percentage is the highest of any captain in MLB history who has managed at least 315 career games. of the. (Negro League managers Bullet Rogan, Vic Harris, and Rube Foster are the only managers with a higher winning percentage in any recognized major league.) The Dodgers made the postseason in Roberts’ seven seasons, winning six NL West titles, three NL pennants and a World Series championship in 2020.
Amid that tremendous résumé, of course, winning “only” one title has brought Roberts some flak, given that the Dodgers have been favored in almost every trip to the playoffs. This year, LA dominated the league en route to a franchise-record 111 regular season wins, only to be beaten by the Padres in four games in the NLDS. It was the second time in Roberts’ tenure that the Dodgers failed to win at least one round of the playoffs.
The decision to remove Tyler Anderson after five scoreless innings in Game 4 he loomed large after the Padres took the lead in a five-run seventh inning, joining a fairly long list of bullpen decisions that have backfired on Roberts in the postseason. Beyond the bullpen, however, Los Angeles’ normally dangerous lineup entered a collective slump in the NLDS, going 5-for-34 (.147) with runners in scoring position. It’s hard to blame Roberts for such a collapse, and yet, given the Dodgers’ consistent record of regular-season success, nothing short of another Series championship will completely quell the critics.