LOS ANGELES — Fire Dave Roberts.
Over the past nine years, that phrase might have been posted on social media more often than cute cat videos. And a section of the Dodgers’ fan base could have been closer to getting their wish than at any point since 2019 had the Dodgers lost in the first round of the playoffs for a third consecutive year.
Instead, the Dodgers are headed to their fourth World Series in the past eight years under Roberts. Among active managers, only Bruce Bochy can match Roberts’ four pennants. Only 25 managers all-time have led teams to the World Series as many times. His 52 postseason wins are sixth all-time. Of the five managers with more postseason wins, three are in the Hall of Fame (Tony La Russa, Bobby Cox and Joe Torre) and the other two will be (Bochy and Dusty Baker).
“The only ones who question him, I think, is you guys,” Dodgers owner Mark Walter said as the celebration swirled around him in the post-NLCS victory clubhouse Sunday night. “He’s won four pennants in eight years. Anyone who thinks they can do better than that – that’s a lot.”
Indeed, it is. But it’s not enough for many who credit the resources provided by Walter and the rest of the Dodgers’ ownership group for the franchise successes – but blame Roberts for its disappointments.
“I’ve learned to have thicker skin and try to appreciate the fact that there’s always going to be criticism. Maybe more jaded at times,” Roberts said.
“But it is a results business, and I get that. I understand the job, the market, but I’m just happy that our guys really performed.”
Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman is well aware of the results-based criticism that fires fans’ bloodlust when a season ends short of the ultimate goal.
“We have such a great fan base and we love that,” Friedman said after the Division Series victory over the Padres. “The expectations are super high. We love that as well. And whenever we fall short of that, there’s a lot of blame to go around and a lot of disappointed people. We would much rather that than people not caring.
“The theater of October baseball is all outcome-based. If you have a good outcome, positive things are said and written. If you have a bad outcome, really bad things are said and written.”
The story of this Dodgers’ season could have been written very differently without Roberts’ handling of what he calls his “most challenging season.”
The Dodgers spent more than $1 billion in the offseason, then lost All-Star Mookie Betts for almost two months and third baseman Max Muncy for three. Twelve different pitchers had at least one stint on the injured list, with high-priced addition Yoshinobu Yamamoto missing nearly three months. A rock in their lineup on a day-to-day basis, All-Star first baseman Freddie Freeman was battered by injuries – he played with a broken finger and has tried to play on a severely sprained ankle through the postseason – but more painfully dealt with the illness of a young son.
The Dodgers reached the All-Star break with more players (15) on the injured list than any other team and have reached the World Series with just three healthy starting pitchers.
“There’s a lot of times in the season where we could have punted and had every excuse to look forward to ’25,” Roberts said. “But they didn’t.”
Friedman gives Roberts the credit for that.
“I think there were times during the year with some of the injuries we had where it was a little bit deflating,” Friedman said. “And I think Doc did a great job of getting in front of that and pumping some enthusiasm and optimism into the group.”
One of those moments “turned our season around,” Muncy said Sunday.
The Dodgers had just lost the first two games in a four-game series in Atlanta – part of a slide that saw them lose six of nine games, cutting their lead in the NL West to 3½ games. Then they got the news that Tyler Glasnow would not be pitching again in 2024 due to an elbow injury. A devastating blow to Glasnow individually, it hit the Dodgers collectively as just one too many setbacks.
Before the third game in Atlanta, Roberts gathered the team together for a meeting.
“Not from the team but from the outside – everybody was panicking because we had a lot of injuries. We lose a lot of pitchers,” outfielder Teoscar Hernandez recalled. “And it was one time that we felt like we were down as a team. And one meeting changed everything.
“We realized that we have the potential, that we have the players, that we’re still the Dodgers and we can do special things with the people we have. … It was just a meeting to put everybody’s head up again and just keep pushing until we win everything.”
Roberts said he called the meeting because he felt “a little ‘woe is me’” attitude sinking in.
“And that’s just not who we are,” Roberts said. “The message basically was, I can’t believe more in them than they believe in each other. They’ve got to believe in themselves, right? And I just felt we have enough talent in the room to do that.
“I just kind of wanted to bring that to light.”
Roberts’ managing is less about those big moments than it is about the little ones, Muncy said.
“The job that he does definitely does not get enough credit,” Muncy said. “He manages this club based on the guys in this room. He doesn’t do it off a spreadsheet. He doesn’t do it off what someone tells him. He walks around and he has conversations with everybody. He knows how pitchers are feeling. He knows how the position players are feeling. Hey – Freddie wanted to be out there (for Game 6) but they had a tough conversation about maybe it’s best if he wasn’t out there. That’s something that Doc does best. He knows what’s happening in this clubhouse and that’s not for the outside world to know. He knows what every pitcher is going through. Maybe they’ve got something going on at home. Maybe they’re a little under the weather. Maybe they’ve thrown a lot and they just need a break. Doc manages that and he never puts that out there. He does an amazing job.
“He takes a lot of heat from our fans. But fans just want to win at the end of the day. Doc knows that.”
Much of the criticism of Roberts has been fueled by missteps in the postseason. But this October he has operated with “a lot of clarity” compared to past postseasons, he said. The team’s pitching shortcomings might actually be helping with that.
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There is no temptation to overuse a starting pitcher when you only have three. Yoshinobu Yamamoto is not pitching on short rest. Jack Flaherty is not coming out of the bullpen between starts. A deep bullpen minimizes the risk of overexposing one or two back-end relievers.
Roberts has been “surgical” with his pitching decisions at times during this run, Friedman said. He has needed to be. The Dodgers will head to the World Series having gotten considerably more innings from their bullpen (60⅓) than their starters (36⅔).
“It’s gone the way we had expected in terms of where we are at today. How we got there, absolutely not how we envisioned this,” Roberts said with a smile during the NLCS.
“I would have expected Tyler Glasnow to pitch in one of these games. … But at the end of the day we’re in the same spot we had hoped. And we just have to keep winning.”