The Dodgers and manager Dave Roberts have agreed to an extension, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. His previous contract was set to expire after 2025 but Heyman reports the new deal is a four-year pact, adding three new years, running through 2028. Roberts will make slightly over $8MM per year, a new record for a manager, topping Craig Counsell’s $8MM salary with the Cubs. Per Joel Sherman of The New York Post, it will be $32.4MM in total, which is $8.1MM in terms of average annual value.
The news doesn’t come as a shock. Clubs generally don’t like to have skippers in “lame duck” position, that is, managing on a deal that is about to expire. Reporting throughout the winter has suggested the Dodgers and Roberts were likely to work out a new deal prior to the start of the 2025 season. It was reported on Thursday that the two sides were making progress on a deal that would see Roberts break Counsell’s record. On Friday, Roberts referred to the talks as being on “the one-yard line”, per Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic.
Roberts has been at the helm for the Dodgers since November of 2015. The club was already in good overall position at that time, having just won three straight division titles under manager Don Mattingly, but with three straight deflating postseason losses. They lost the NLCS to the Cardinals in 2013 and then suffered quick NLDS defeats in the next two seasons.
Under Roberts, the regular season success has continued and the postseason record improved. They made it to the NLCS in the first season and the World Series in his second and third campaigns. The club lost the 2017 World Series to the Astros and the 2018 series to the Red Sox, both asterisk-marked campaigns for those winning clubs. The Dodgers suffered a quick NLDS exit in 2019 but hoisted the trophy in the shortened 2020 season. The next three seasons saw the club eliminated before the World Series, but they won it all again in 2024, getting Roberts his second ring in five years.
More to come.
