Dave Roberts has led the Los Angeles Dodgers to unprecedented success since being named the 32nd manager in franchise history a little more than a decade ago.
The club has reached the playoffs in all 10 of his seasons at the helm, winning nine National League West titles, five pennants and three World Series championships during that span.
Roberts is now approaching his 1,000th career win as Dodgers manager, which is something he isn’t taking for granted and intends to celebrate, via Maddie Lee of the L.A. Times.
“It’s a big number,” said Roberts, who will join Walter Alston, Tommy Lasorda and Wilbert Robinson as the only managers in franchise history to win 1,000 games. “It’s something I never really thought of. … I don’t take a lot of time to look at milestones because I just kind of go day to day. But I’m going to take that one in. Because it’s a long time, it’s a lot of really good players and coaches, and a lot of support.”
In addition to his success as a manager, Roberts is widely regarded as one of the nicest people in baseball. Freddie Freeman praised him last year for truly caring about players and keeping them on top of their game.
Roberts recently shared that counseling and mentoring players are two of his most important duties when it comes to managing.
“I would say it’s the biggest part of the job,” Roberts said during an interview David Vassegh of AM 570 L.A. Sports. “If you have a pie chart, I would say the mental counseling, mentoring side of the job, I would say is probably 35, 40%.
“And I think the in-game, which gets a lot of the scrutiny and criticism, is probably 30%. There’s a lot of different slices to the pie of my job, but I will say it’s the biggest part and most satisfying part of my job.”
Dave Roberts’ managerial stats
Among all-time Dodgers managers, Roberts is fourth in total wins with 999. He trails only Walter Alston (2,040), Tommy Lasorda (1,599) and Wilbert Robinson (1,375).
Roberts’ career .623 winning percentage is the highest of any manager in MLB history (minimum 315 games). It’s bested only by Negro League managers Bullet Rogan (.698), Vic Harris (.663) and Rube Foster (.633).
Roberts has guided the Dodgers to at least 90 wins in every full year as manager. The lone exception was the shortened 2020 season, when he led the team to the Majors’ best record at 43-17.
Roberts has the Dodgers on pace to win 105 games this year, which would be the sixth time they reach the century mark in a single season during his managerial tenure. L.A. is trying to become the first team in 26 years to win three consecutive World Series titles.
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