Right or wrong, managers get a lot of criticism and not a lot of praise. Until Dave Roberts and his Dodgers did it for the second time in 5 years, since 1996, only 4 managers had guided teams to a WS Championship more than once, and only one did it with two teams.
- Joe Torre – 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000 (NYY)
- Terry Francona – 2004, 2007 (Boston)
- Tony LaRussa – 2006, 2011 (Cardinals)
- Bruce Bochy – 2010, 2012, 2014, 2023 (First three SFG, 4th with Texas)
Not one of the above managers managed like a robot manager.
Dave Roberts has now joined that group with WS Championships in 2020 and 2024. Dave Roberts did not manage like a robot manager in either of his World Series Championship seasons. 2024 was his best game planning/managing in his career. 2020 was also at that level.
Since 1996, 15 managers have guided their teams to a WS Championship once.
- Jim Leyland – Marlins 1997
- Bob Brenley – Dbacks 2001
- Mike Scioscia – Angels 2002
- Jack McKeon – Marlins 2003
- Ozzie Guillén – White Sox 2005
- Charlie Manuel – Phillies 2008
- Joe Girardi – NYY 2009
- John Farrell – Boston 2013
- Ned Yost – KC 2015
- Joe Maddon – Cubs 2016
- A.J. Hinch – Astros 2017
- Alex Cora – Boston 2018
- Dave Martinez – Nationals 2019
- Brian Snitker – Braves 2021
- Dusty Baker – Astros 2022
Dodgers were managed by Joe Torre for 2008-2010. He lost in the NLCS twice to Philadelphia (2008-2009), and his 2010 team was the last time the Dodgers were < .500 (80-82).
Today’s managers who have a chance at winning a 2nd (or more) WS:
- Bruce Bochy – 5th
- Dave Roberts – 3rd
- Terry Francona – 3rd
- Dave Martinez – 2nd
- Brian Snitker – 2nd
- J. Hinch – 2nd
- Alex Cora – 2nd
Hinch and Cora should have asterisks as they were both part of the 2017 cheating Astros: Hinch as the manager, and Cora as the bench coach.
The biggest questionable manager has to be Bud Black. Black has been a MLB manager for 17 years (9 for the Padres and 8 for the Rockies). Black has never won a Division. He has been 2nd twice, 3rd five times, 4th five times, and 5th five times. His last winning season was 2018. His teams have reached the playoffs twice (2017 and 2018), with a playoff record of 1-4.
Outside of Roberts and Gabe Kapler, Bud Black got a lot of consideration for the LAD job in 2016.
What does it all mean? Can’t really say for sure. I have been a Bruce Bochy advocate, but then non-believers point to his sub .500 regular season record. I glob onto his 4 World Series Championships.
Again IMO, prior to this year, the best Dave Roberts managed was 2020, primarily how he used Julio Urías. Urías started Game 3 in the NLCS and pitched 5.0 innings in a blow out LAD victory. He came back in relief in Game 7 and pitched 3.0 perfect innings for the 4-3 victory.
Urías started Game 4 of the 2020 WS and pitched 4.2 innings. He came back in Game 6 and pitched 2.1 perfect innings to preserve the WS win.
Earlier in the game, Tampa Bay was leading 1-0, but Gonsolin was not very sharp and he had runners on 1st and 2nd in the second inning. Due up was Randy Arozarena, who had already hit a long HR against Gonsolin in the 1st. Roberts did not waste any time pulling Gonsolin and brought in Dylan Floro to pitch to Arozarena. Three pitches later, Arozarena struck out, and the TB lead did not grow.
Contrarily Blake Snell was dealing and had the Dodgers on the ropes. In the 6th inning with Austin Barnes on 1st with the Dodgers 2nd hit, Kevin Cash following the “book” by not letting his starter face the lineup a 3rd time, brought in Nick Anderson to face Mookie Betts. Snell had already struck out Betts, Seager, and JT twice each. 73 pitches in 5.1 innings. Certainly not overworked. We all remember what happened after Snell left the game.
There are a lot of LAD fans who have complained about Roberts but wanted Kevin Cash as their manager.
IMO, that was the playoffs where Roberts managed by what he saw and not by the algorithms generated by the back office nerds. He seemingly went back to that approach in 2024.
Would a different manager get the same results? We will never know. Would a different manager have guided LAD to more than 1 WS? Interesting debate, but there will never be an answer.
Tom Lasorda managed the Dodgers for 20 years. He won four NL pennants and two WS, including a shortened 1981 season. Lasorda is in the HOF. Roberts has equaled that in 9 years. I will go out on a limb and say that Roberts will eclipse Tommy’s record as a Championship manager.
Roberts is one of just six managers since the postseason expanded beyond the World Series (in 1969) to claim four pennants with one club, joining Earl Weaver, Sparky Anderson, Bobby Cox, Joe Torre and Tommy Lasorda. I bet Roberts will have at least 5.
Roberts laughed at the company.
“It feels like that’s part of the equation, to be back on that stage,” Roberts said before it soaked in. “In this moment to kind of appreciate the company that I’m in, that I’ve now become part of, it’s actually pretty emotional, to be quite honest.”
After Tyler Glasnow and Gavin Stone were ruled out of the playoffs, Doc held a meeting that may have changed the season. This is from an article from The Athletic:
One of the potential breaking points came in September when Roberts called an impromptu meeting. The Dodgers had seen their grasp on the division start to slip. They’d fallen into another stretch of middling baseball that had become more frequent this summer than any in their recent, dominant history. Tyler Glasnow, the club’s major trade acquisition this winter, was officially out for the season. Standout rookie Gavin Stone was about to be, too.
Roberts spoke. He reassured them. He kept the train on the tracks.
“It was one time that we felt like we were down as a team,” Teoscar Hernández said this week. “And one meeting changed everything.”
“I think there were times during the year with some of the injuries we had where it was a little bit deflating,” Friedman said. “And I think Doc did a great job of getting in front of that and pumping some enthusiasm and optimism into the group. It was quick. They flushed it quickly. And came out the next day focused.”
“(He) doesn’t get down when times get tough — and we had a lot of tough times,” Kasten said.
Roberts is a master at communication. His players love him. He has had the talent in the dugout, but this year he had new players with fight.
Jimmy Leyland was just inducted into the HOF. In 22 years, he won 3 pennants and 1 WS. His regular season record is .506 winning percentage.
In 1996, Earl Weaver (17 years) was inducted into the HOF. Earl won 4 pennants and one WS.
Sparky Anderson (26 years) was inducted in 2000. He won 5 pennants and 3 WS.
In 2014, Bobby Cox (29 years) was inducted into the HOF. He guided the Braves to 5 pennants and 1 WS.
Tony La Russa (35 years) was also inducted into the HOF in 2014. He has 5 pennants and 3 WS.
Joe Torre (29 years) was also inducted into the HOF in 2014. He has 6 pennants and 4 WS.
Two current managers seem destined for HOF…Bruce Bochy (27 years) and Terry Francona (23 years so far).
In nine years, Roberts has exceeded the accomplishments of Lasorda, Leyland, Weaver, Francona and I will add Cox as he won only 1 WS. Will he be able to match Sparky’s 5 pennants and 3 WS, or LaRussa’s 6 pennants and 3 WS, or Bochy’s 5 pennants and 4 WS, or Torre’s 6 pennants and 4 WS? Why not. He is only 52 years old, and the Dodgers figure to be more than competitive for many many many more years. Roberts has only 9 years experience as manager, while those 4 had/have at least 26 years as manager.
IMO, the Dodgers have a HOF manager, and he should get a lengthy extension.
Winter 2024-2025 Calendar
Free agency is already underway, but the free agent players aren’t permitted to sign with other teams for at least five days (November 4).
November 3 – Gold Glove winners announced. Dodgers catcher, Will Smith, and Dodgers utility player, Kiké Hernández, are the only nominees.
November 4 – Free agents are free to sign with any team. All options/opt put clauses need to be exercised. Teams have until 4:00 pm Central to decide whether to issue qualifying offers to eligible free agents. This year’s QO is $21.05MM.
The qualifying offer is a one-year deal, valued at the average of the top 125 salaries during the previous season, which this year comes to $21.05 million.
November 4–7 – General managers meetings in San Antonio, Texas.
November 12 – Silver Slugger award winners announced.
November 14 – Reliever of the Year and Comeback Player of the Year award winners announced.
November 18 – Rookie of the Year award winners announced.
November 19 – Players have until 3:00 pm Central to decide whether to accept the qualifying offer. Players who accept a QO, like all major league free agent signees, cannot be traded without their consent until June 15. Those who decline the QO are tied to draft compensation.
November 19 – Rule 5 protection deadline. Teams must add players who would otherwise be eligible for the Rule 5 draft to their 40-man roster by this date to keep them out of the draft.
November 19 – Manager of the Year award winners announced.
November 19-21 – Quarterly owners meetings in New York.
November 20 – Cy Young award winners announced.
November 21 – MVP award winners announced.
November 22 – Non-tender deadline. Teams must decide whether to offer contracts to the arbitration-eligible and pre-arbitration players on their 40-man roster. They do not need to agree to salaries by this date. Players who are non-tendered immediately become free agents without going through waivers.
December 8 – Hall of Fame Classic Baseball Committee announcement.
December 8-11 – Winter Meetings in Dallas, Texas. The Winter Meetings are the offseason’s busiest few days and annually feature ample free agent and trade activity.
December 10 – Amateur draft lottery. The Rockies and Marlins have the best chance (22.45% each) of securing next year’s first overall pick.
December 11 – Rule 5 draft. Players selected must stay on their new teams’ active rosters for the entire ’25 season or be offered back to their original organization.
December 15 – Closing of the 2024 signing period for international amateurs.
January 9 – Teams and arbitration-eligible players exchange salary filing figures.
January 15 – Opening of the 2025 signing period for international amateurs.
January 21 – Baseball Writers’ Association of America Hall of Fame announcement.
January 17 – February 14 – Arbitration hearings. Arbitrators must choose either the team’s or player’s filing figure, not a midpoint.
February 12 – Voluntary report date for pitchers and catchers. Players from the Dodgers and Cubs, who’ll open the season in Tokyo, could arrive a few days earlier.
February 17 – Voluntary report date for other players.
February 20 – Spring Training play begins.
March 18-19 – Dodgers and Cubs open regular season play with a two-game series at the Tokyo Dome.
March 27 – Domestic Opening Day.
My comments with respect to the LAD exercising the club option on Austin Barnes. For those who have read me for even a little while, know that I am ecstatic that Barnes will be back with the Dodgers. I never doubted that LAD would exercise the option.
David Robertson declined his option with the Rangers, now a free agent.
OKC officially has a new name, the Oklahoma City Comets. Has something to do with Mantle I think, new logo is pretty cool.
IMHO Roberts will make it to the HOF. This second WS title pretty much has sealed it for him, especially looking at some of the other guys credentials Jeff laid out in his blog today.
If he wins another WS he is a no doubter for sure.
Okay, parade is over. Now lets look ahead to 2025.
Dodgers should go after Soto. At 26 he already is a future HOF very likely . Top 3 MLB hitter. Dodgers should offer him 13 years , 600 million. If you structure the contract just a little backloaded the money would be no issue.
First 3 seasons at 40 million annually, last 10 seasons 48 millions annually.
After those first 3 seasons a lot of money will be coming off theDodgers books with CT3, Muncy and FF contracts over. For the last two years Mookies contract will be over by then as will Ohtnis. And remember he would basically replace Teo and his projected contract which will be at around 25-30 million annually too.
Soto is not good fielder, yes, but he will be okay in LF and by the time FF contract is over you can put him at 1b. Or move Ohtani to 1b when his pitching days are done and move Soto to DH. A lot of options where his defense will not hurt you too much.
But you get a great hitter who is still very young and the Dodgers have to get a bit younger anyway.
IMHO Soto is a no brainer for the Dodgers.
Would like to sign Tanner Scott . Great piece for our bullpen especially if Treinen should call it a career.
If Glasnow is okay I would stay put with our starters with the exception of bringing back Walker. He has earned a new contract with the Dodgers.
Should Glasnow not be good to go in 2025 I would like the Dodgers to look to Burnes or Snell . Both true aces.
Last but not least. Sasaki. If he gets posted I hope the Dodgers sign him. Dodgers have the most money for international signings and with Yoshi and Shohei I think Sasaki would be ecstatic to come to LA.
Make it a SSS- trifecto by bringing in Soto, Sasaki and Scott and the Dodgers are set up for another deep postseason run and hopefully a back-to back WS title which they have not achieved yet in their long history.
Go Dodger!!!!!!!!!
Here is a good article/overview for the Dodgers roster status and decisions, including Rule 5.
https://www.truebluela.com/2024/11/1/24281481/dodgers-roster-breakdown-2024-offseason
Go Dodgers!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A really good look at the Dodgers offseason.
Go Dodgers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Keith Law has a Q&A @TheAthletic.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5889163/2024/11/01/live-qa-with-keith-law-on-free-agency-the-offseason-and-more/
Couple of interesting answers:
Question:
Does the plague of arm injuries change the value proposition for high end pitching for front office bean counters? Does the increase in arm injuries affect the ability to insure a contract?
Keith Law
I don’t know the answer to the insurance question, but I do see a growing number of FOs who don’t want to go past 3-4 years for any pitchers, and I think this winter’s group will see a lot more 1-2 year offers. There’s just an increasing belief that pitchers are disposable assets – get ’em in, burn ’em up, throw ’em away. I hate it.
Question:
Moneyball spoke about finding value in market efficiencies <EDITOR’S NOTE: market inefficiencies, actually.> Do you see any? Cleveland pretty much killed the market efficiency of bull pen arms this year. Prices will skyrocket.
Keith Law
Following on the answer I just gave, I wonder if pure innings are a little undervalued right now.
Question:
Now that it’s over, what do you think went wrong with Farhan Zaidi’s drafting and development system? Do you believe the issue was organizational, philosophical, or maybe even bad luck?
Keith Law
@Carl W. I think a LOT of bad luck, and that maybe led to some decisions they wouldn’t have made otherwise, like rushing guys (Luciano, Matos, etc.). Also the one 100-win season probably upended a lot of internal plans for building over the longer term. Once you do that, the expectation from fans and ownership that you will continue winning at a similar pace can overwhelm the kind of more patient strategy I expected from Zaidi.
Question:
I was sad for the Dodgers, though happy for him, when they traded Michael Busch to the Cubs for Jackson Ferris and Zyir <SIC> Hope. That trade is looking good for all at this point. Your thoughts?
Keith Law
@Jay O. Agreed, looks good for both sides. Hope really took a big step forward this year. Still not sure about the pitch selection, but he is some kind of athlete and he’s gotten a lot stronger.
Robert’s election to HOF might be easier than him becoming Manager of the year based on the history of those awards.
Jeff, how does Barnes make the Dodgers better when he is not behind the plate? You have a unique perspective given your son’s catching career.
How much of Taylor’s salary would the Dodgers have to retain to get a favourable trade?
I just watched a video of game five’s ninth inning and saw something I totally missed. Glad my eyes are being checked in January, but after Buehler struck out Austin Wells for the second out, he flipped the bird to Buehler. I stand corrected, thumb not finger, whoopsie.
Brewers declined the option on Devin Williams but retain his services because of arbitration. Royals signed Michael Wacha to a three-year deal.
I am not in the Juan Soto camp. The Dodgers won the WS in 5 games, and was clearly the better team, even with what was reported as an inferior starting rotation, compared to the team that Soto played for.
LAD – BA .258 (4th MLB), OBP .335 (2nd), SLG .446 (1st), OPS .781 (1st)
NYY – BA .248 (9th MLB), OBP .333 (3rd), SLG .429 (4th), OPS .762 (3rd)
As a team, the LAD wRC+ (Weighted Runs Created +) is #1 at 118, while NYY is #2 at 117.
Offense was not the problem:
And then the pitching metrics:
Total: ERA 3.90 (13th), WHIP 1.23 (8th), BA .235 (7th), SO/9 8.65 (13th), BB/9 3.12 (18th), K/BB 2.77 (17th)
SP: ERA 4.23 (19th), WHIP 1.26 (20th), BA .244 (13th), SO/9 8.62 (10th), BB/9 3.02 (20th),
K/BB 2.85 (17th)
RP:ERA 3.53 (4th), WHIP 1.18 (5th), BA .224 (6th), SO/9 8.69 (21st), BB/9 3.24 (13th), K/BB 6985 (17th)
It sure looks like the Dodgers need pitching more than Soto, thus IMO, that is where their focus should be on.
I looked at the $$$ commitment projections for who the Dodgers can sign per Jim Bowden of The Athletic: Corbin Burnes, Willy Adames, Jack Flaherty, Teoscar Hernández, Walker Buehler, Blake Treinen, and Tanner Scott. Bowden’s projections indicate those seven will cost $627MM while Soto will cost $622. Replacing Corbin Burnes with Blake Snell will save $142MM, while replacing Burnes with Sean Manaea will save $179.
Bowden does indicate Burnes is a fit for the Dodgers, but not Snell or Manaea, both LHP. In addition, not one publication has included Scott as a fit for the Dodgers. But the one top reliever that has LAD as a fit is Carlos Estevez, and he is a lot less expensive than Scott.
I have no idea who the Dodgers will sign, but it is crystal clear to me that they can fill a hole at SS, a hole in LF, holes in SP and RP instead of Soto.
I typically look at the 26 with an eye to whom I like to watch as opposed to who might be the best player. In that regards, I would like to see Outman in CF but only if he plays well. I realize the risk of not moving on from him when he might be part of a trade that better helps the Dodgers.
I’ve fully supported Lux but he has never been a favorite. I would rather he be traded instead of Outman.
I was wrong on Muncy until I was right again. His defense through the post season was awesome with the exception of a couple of line drives down the line that a quicker may or may not have reached. One of the reasons the Dodgers won it all this year was with the contact they made on key at bats where in past years they got the strike out or pop up. If 3rd base has a new player, I would like to see someone with more contact than Muncy. That helps keep OUtman, a favorite of mine, in the lineup. Can’t have to many swing and miss hitters in the lineup and Outman is younger and funner.
I wish there was a place for Joc. AZ didn’t have anybody else for lefty DH and they had speedy outfielders. Joc can still catch the ball and I have seen him get to the extra base as needed but whatever speed he has on the base paths doesn’t seem to play in the outfield. His defense in LF would not be that much different then Teo’s or Greg Luzinski’s for that matter. It would be cool to have Joc and Kike’ on a playoff team.
Good for Rojas and Barnes. Hopefully Buehler gets signed.
Yankees have until 4 PM tomorrow to make a decision on Cole. They declined the option on Trevino. Rays will most likely not know about how long the Trop will be out of use for at least 8 weeks. They will likely need to find a new home for a while. Trop is due to be replaced by a new park in 2028.
To answer the question posed by Jeff…..HELL YEAH HE IS HOF and he is my manager for life. What he did at that celebration with Ice Cube and as the announcer won me completely over….for life.