GLENDALE, Ariz. — ‘Sliding doors’ is a concept (popularized by the 1998 Gwyneth Paltrow movie of that name) that posits seemingly mundane moments can be pivotal, changing the course of a person’s life.
There was nothing mundane about it – unless you consider that Dave Roberts has now managed 100 postseason games, more than any active manager and more than all but four managers in MLB history (Joe Torre, Tony La Russa, Bobby Cox and Dusty Baker). But Game 4 of last year’s National League Division Series between the Dodgers and San Diego Padres could have been a sliding doors moment for Roberts.
The Dodgers were on the brink of elimination, trailing two games to one in the best-of-five series. A loss that night would have sent the Dodgers home, first-round failures for the third year in a row. The glaring disparity between regular-season success and postseason disappointment would have turned the heat up on everyone in the Dodgers’ organization.
Managers always seem to be seated closest to the flame.
“Honestly, I wasn’t thinking about that in the moment or even entering the series,” Roberts said this spring, acknowledging that he does believe in the existence of pivotal ‘sliding doors moments’ in life.
“I do think that if we didn’t win that game it would have become very noisy. A team that was obviously super-talented to lose three years in a row in the first round – albeit it takes all of us to win and lose – but I do think that calls for my job would have been heightened.”
The Dodgers didn’t lose Game 4. Roberts stitched together an eight-pitcher ‘bullpen game’ shutout and everything changed. The Dodgers lived to fight another day – and won the series in Game 5 (five pitchers combining on another shutout).
Roberts’ every pitching decision seemed to be the right one – even when the Dodgers essentially ‘punted’ on a game, marshalling their limited pitching resources for another game. Starting with NLDS Game 4, the Dodgers won 10 of their next 13 postseason games to win their long-awaited, full-season World Series championship. At one point along the way, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman described Roberts’ decision-making as “surgical.”
One door slid closed where Roberts would be sitting on a hot seat. Another opened on him dancing with Ice Cube.
“I did talk to my wife about it and we just kind of had that same type of conversation,” Roberts said of being aware how his job security would have been diminished by another first-round loss. “But I do have solace when I hear Andrew say things like, ‘Dave has always managed well in the postseason. He didn’t do anything different than in years when we didn’t win the World Series.’
“It’s interesting where you don’t win a series and you can feel that calls for your job come into play. But you win the World Series and now people are saying you’re going to Cooperstown.”
At least one person didn’t wait for the Dodgers to vanquish the New York Yankees to make that prophecy. During an interview on MLB Network in December, Roberts said Kiké Hernandez told him before Game 1 of the World Series, “After this series, you’re going to the Hall of Fame.”
Sliding doors have delivered Roberts from the days when he was blamed for the Dodgers’ every playoff failure, his pitching decisions dissected and found wanting to a new reality where Roberts is measured against other Hall of Fame managers – and not found wanting.
Texas Rangers manager Bruce Bochy is headed to the Hall of Fame. Among active managers only he and Roberts have won multiple World Series championships (four for Bochy, two for Roberts). They are tied for the most postseason appearances among active managers with nine. Bochy’s have come in 27 seasons. Roberts has led his team to the postseason in each of his nine seasons as an MLB manager.
Bochy has just one more postseason victory than Roberts (57-56). Twenty-six managers in MLB history have, like Roberts now, won multiple World Series. Fifteen of those are in the Hall of Fame. Three more (Roberts, Bochy and Terry Francona) are still active.
“It’s certainly a compliment. But I have a lot more managing left to do,” Roberts said. “So I don’t really pay too much attention to it.”
It’s more than a compliment – it’s leverage.
Fresh off the 2024 World Series title, Roberts enters 2025 in the final year of his contract. Negotiations for an extension are underway with an agreement almost certain to be reached at some point.
Neither Bochy nor Roberts is currently the highest-paid manager in MLB. That distinction belongs to Craig Counsell, who was lured from the Milwaukee Brewers to the Chicago Cubs before last season with a five-year, $40 million contract.
“It was just a consequence of how it played out (not something he targeted),” Counsell said of becoming the highest-paid manager.
“Look, that’s how salaries work, jobs,” Counsell said, pointing out how the highest salary among players seems to change hands every year or two.
“It’s no different (for managers).”
Counsell led the Brewers to the postseason five times in his nine seasons as their manager. But he won a postseason series just once, reaching the NLCS against the Dodgers in 2018.
Counsell acknowledges that his own salary “should” help the more accomplished Roberts get even more from the Dodgers.
Roberts chooses his words carefully when asked bluntly if he believes he deserves to be the highest-paid manager based on his record in leading the Dodgers.
“That’s a hard question,” he said. “I just think it all comes down to value. And I think whatever anyone does, they want their value. That’s kind of where I’m at. I’m hopeful things get done.
“But it’s not (a goal) to be the highest-paid manager. If that’s the fallout, fine. But that’s not why I do my job. I do my job because I love baseball, I love the Dodgers and I love the players. But I do feel the body of work is pretty dang good.”
In the post-Moneyball age, managers are valued differently than the days when Tommy Lasorda, Sparky Anderson, Joe Torre and the like were the faces and driving forces of their franchises.
“There’s more to the job than I think people realize” in the modern game, Roberts said, and “industry-wide” managers might not be valued appropriately. The flow of information is greater, the attention – and demands – of the media on a manager far greater than in the days when the job was largely defined by when to put on the hit-and-run or when to leave the hotel bar.
Can money equal respect then?
“Not in all ways. But in some ways,” Roberts said. “I feel better about the word value.”