The Los Angeles Dodgers captured their eighth World Series title in 2024 and are looking to continue adding to that total this season as the heavy favorite.
The Dodgers were expected to win the World Series last season after a flurry of substantial moves left them with a payroll north of $350 million. Anything else would have been considered a massive failure.
But in a sense, nothing had really changed for the organization. Nor has it since the Dodgers put together yet another impressive offseason in their quest to repeat as World Series champions.
“The expectations haven’t changed,” manager Dave Roberts recently said. “Everyone is expecting us to repeat. That wasn’t different from last year.
“Los Angeles is becoming the epicenter for sports in the world. I think that’s what our ownership group, the front office, that was our goal. Whether you’re in South America, Latin America, south of the border, north of the border up in Canada, and certainly anywhere in Asia, you’re talking about the Dodgers.”
The Dodgers’ spending the past two years have resulted in misplaced anger from fans of other teams, with criticism of overall spending and use of deferred salary as the main hot-button issue. The Dodgers are welcoming their role as the proverbial villain going forward, and actually see themselves as the model for how other teams should be operating.
“I think you’ve got to embrace it. Who wouldn’t want to be the focus and do what our organization is doing for the city and fans? To be quite frank, we draw more than anyone as far as any sports venue in the world. When you’re drawing 4 million fans a year, the way you reciprocate is by investing in players, and that’s what we’ve done,” Roberts said.
The Dodgers were able to execute their offseason vision flawlessly, which included re-signing several of their own free agents while adding an infusion of outside talent.
“I’m thrilled. Obviously, we all had our wishlist and you never know how an offseason is going to go. But I think on the player front, we accomplished everything we wanted to,” Roberts said. “We kept the guys we felt were core pieces that we needed to make a go at this back-to-back.
“The hard part — the fun part — is how and who do you infuse into a ballclub? Certainly raising the talent floor, which we did, and also guys who haven’t won championships, that hunger.
“They want what we have. So when you’re talking about Tanner Scott, Blake Snell, (Michael) Conforto, (Kirby) Yates, all those guys, they want a championship and they chose to come to the Dodgers for that reason. I think we did a great job.”
Dodgers sign Dave Roberts to historic extension
Prior to leaving for the start of 2025 regular season with the Tokyo Series, the Dodgers signed Roberts to a four-year contract, $32.4 million contract extension that will keep him at the helm through the 2029 season.
Roberts’ new deal includes a record average annual value of $8.1 million per season, the most ever for an MLB manager. Chicago Cubs’ Craig Counsell still is the highest-paid manager in MLB history with his $40 million contract.
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