Dave Roberts’ quote from last month did not age well (and he obviously won’t be one bit upset about it).
The Los Angeles Dodgers stunned the baseball world on Thursday by winning the sweepstakes for prized free agent outfielder Kyle Tucker. The reigning back-to-back World Series champions are giving Tucker a four-year deal for a truly absurd amount of money.
In the wake of the news, an old quote by the Dodgers manager Roberts resurfaced. Speaking with reporters at MLB Winter Meetings in December, Roberts commented on the team’s plans for the offseason.
Roberts said at the time that the Dodgers would be comfortable with running it back with the same roster in 2026. He even went so far as to say that the Dodgers did not need to make a “big splash” in free agency.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts says he’s quite comfortable running it back with virtually the same roster: ‘There’s really no big splash that we feel that needs to be made.’
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) December 8, 2025
Predictably though, that did not end up being one bit true for the Dodgers. Just days after Roberts’ quote, the Dodgers signed three-time All-Star reliever Edwin Diaz to a three-year, $69 million deal. Now Tucker is also headed to L.A. on the single biggest contract of the MLB offseason thus far (thereby constituting a “big splash”).
Roberts is set to enter his 11th season as the manager of the Dodgers in 2026. Instead of running it back with the same roster, Roberts now gets two more elite-level talents with which to go for the “three-peat” next season.
