When the Los Angeles Dodgers held a press conference with team president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and general manager Farhan Zaidi to discuss parting ways with Don Mattingly as manager, Friedman said the club would cast a wide net and conduct a thorough managerial search.
Friedman added his hope was to have a manager in place by the time the Winter Meetings begin Dec. 7 in Nashville, Tenn., and inexperience wouldn’t be viewed as a negative.
In the days that have followed, Dodgers director of player development Gabe Kapler, Chicago Cubs bench coach Dave Martinez, and former Angels outfielder Darin Erstad have been among the names linked to the vacant manager’s job in Los Angeles.
According to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports, San Diego Padres bench coach Dave Roberts interviewed with the Dodgers:
Sources: #Dodgers have interviewed Dave Roberts for managing job. LAD not close to decision. Roberts expected to move on from SD regardless.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) November 3, 2015
Roberts played parts of 10 seasons in the Majors with the Cleveland Indians (1999-2001), Dodgers (2002-04), Boston Red Sox (2004), Padres (2005-06) and San Francisco Giants (2007-08); he won a World Series with the Red Sox in 2004.
After retiring in 2008, Roberts was an analyst for the New England Sports Network (NESN) in 2009, then joined the Padres front office as a special assistant to baseball operations in 2010.
He quickly joined then-Padres manager Bud Black‘s staff as first base coach and following the 2013 season, the Padres announced Roberts would replace Rick Renteria as bench coach, after Renteria was hired to manage the Chicago Cubs.
Sitting at just 32-33, the Padres fired Black in June and promoted Pat Murphy from the Minors to serve as interim manager after Roberts took over for one game (a loss). San Diego finished 74-88 — 18 games back of the National League West champion Dodgers.
The Padres named Arizona Diamondbacks third base coach Andy Green as manager on Oct. 29. It’s believed Roberts also interviewed for the Seattle Mariners managerial vacancy and was a finalist before the Mariners elected to go with Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim assistant general manager Scott Servais.
