The Los Angeles Dodgers entered the offseason sooner than they would have hoped after falling to the Atlanta Braves in Game 6 of the National League Championship Series.
The club now shifts its focus to what’s expected to be a busy winter. L.A. will have decisions to make on several key players who are due to reach the open market after the conclusion of the World Series, including Max Scherzer, Clayton Kershaw and Corey Seager, among others.
Another who may soon no longer be under contract is Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who has one year remaining on the four-year extension he signed after the 2018 season.
Roberts revealed that he hopes to receive another extension at some point this offseason rather than enter 2022 with just one year left on his deal, via Jorge Castillo of the L.A. Times:
“I know I got another year left and it’s just kind of expecting, hoping, that they come to me and we can work something out, I guess,” Roberts said when reached by phone Sunday. “And, if not, you just kind of do your job and play out the contract.”
It isn’t surprising that Roberts wants to sign an extension with the Dodgers as managers typically like to avoid reaching lame duck status in the final year of their contract.
Since taking the helm as manager at the start of the 2016 season, Roberts has led the organization to an MLB-best 542-329 record, five NL West titles, three NL pennants and one World Series championship.
Despite being a constant target of criticism for some of his in-game decisions in the postseason, Roberts has been an integral part of the Dodgers’ success, and the expectation is that a new agreement eventually will be worked out.
Roberts’ final message to Dodgers after elimination
After being eliminated from the postseason, Roberts shared details of his final time addressing players for the year, which highlighted what the Dodgers accomplished in totality even with falling short of their ultimate goal.
“I think for my message to our guys, basically it was a tremendous season. It was a heck of a year,” Roberts said. “Going through a lot of different things that we went through that no one talked about, no one needed to talk about, and didn’t let it affect our performance, that’s something I was proud of.
“To win 106 games, to go through a Wild Card Game, to then be pushed in a five-game series against a division rival, to come out of that, and to be two wins away from going to the World Series.
“I think for me I wanted those guys to be proud of that because the entire organization — not just the guys in the room — there’s people that all across our organization that worked really hard for this season and to say that it was a lost season or a wasted season or anything, you’ve never been in Major League clubhouse and understand the sacrifices that people make.
“So it’s still not lost on any of us that we didn’t accomplish our goal. But for me I’m giving credit to the Braves because they outplayed us, plain and simple.”
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