It appears that the Los Angeles Dodgers will not be overreacting to their Waterloo moment.
Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times reports this week that Dodgers manager Dave Roberts is expected to return for the 2023 season. Harris adds that Roberts would be starting a three-year contract extension that he signed prior to the 2022 campaign.
Roberts, the NL Manager of the Year in 2016, has served as the Dodgers’ skipper for the last seven years. He owns a .632 winning percentage (the fourth-highest in MLB history) and has led the Dodgers to six NL West division crowns plus a World Series title in 2020. But fan dissatisfaction with Roberts has reached a crescendo amidst the Dodgers’ latest playoff flop, which may go down as one of the biggest sports failures of all-time.
The Dodgers won a franchise-record 111 games during the regular season, cheese-grating their opponents all throughout the year. But come the NLDS against the San Diego Padres, a team that the Dodgers had beaten time and time again, their bats went frostbite-cold, and they managed just one win in four games in what can only be described as a colossal choke job. Roberts also came under fire for his overmanagement of the bullpen, a common criticism of him throughout his time as manager.
But while Roberts has often been gaffe-prone (even in the Dodgers’ dazzling regular season this year), he was not culpable for some of the biggest factors that felled the Dodgers in the NLDS (e.g. the top of the order going M.I.A., key pitchers like Walker Buehler and Tony Gonsolin getting hurt at awful times, etc.). Roberts also answers to a front office that, by all indications, likes to dabble into on-field decisions. Thus, it seems Roberts will avoid becoming the fall guy for the Dodgers’ monumental collapse this year.
