Livescore
Coming off a World Series championship (and two in the past five seasons), the Los Angeles Dodgers are making Dave Roberts the highest-paid manager in Major League Baseball.
Roberts, 52, and the Dodgers have agreed to a four-year contract worth a reported $32.4 million, according to ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez. The pact will surpass the five-year, $40 million agreement that Craig Counsell signed with the Chicago Cubs after the 2023 season. The two sides had been discussing a contract extension throughout spring training, with the goal of finalizing a deal before the Dodgers departed for Japan for their season-opening series against the Cubs.
Going into his 10th season as Dodgers manager, Roberts was in the final year of the three-year extension he signed before the 2022 campaign.
Signing Roberts to a new deal caps a spectacular offseason for the Dodgers in which the team added pitchers Roki Sasaki, Blake Snell, Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates, outfielder Michael Conforto and infielder Hyeseong Kim. The Dodgers also re-signed outfielder Teoscar Hernández, utility man Enrique Hernandez, reliever Blake Treinen and starter Clayton Kershaw.
Those moves pushed the team’s player payroll to $379 million; it will approach $400 million for luxury tax calculations. Roberts’ salary isn’t included in that figure, but it falls in line with the Dodgers’ continuing to pay top dollar for the best talent, including Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman.
Asked before Monday’s news if he deserves to be the highest-paid manager in baseball, Roberts was coy.
“I just think it all comes down to value. And I think whatever anyone does, they want their value,” Roberts told Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register. “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,” he added. “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.”
During his nine seasons in the Dodgers’ dugout, Roberts has compiled an 851-506 record with eight National League West division titles, four NL pennants and two World Series titles.
His .627 winning percentage is higher than that of any manager in National and American League history. Only Texas Rangers manager Bruce Bochy has more postseason wins (57 to Roberts’ 52) among active skippers. Roberts is one of three active managers who have won more than one World Series championship.
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