Dave Roberts (roberda07)

David Ray Roberts

Bats Left, Throws Left
Height 5' 10", Weight 180 lb.
School University of California, Los Angeles
High School Vista (CA) High School, Rancho Buena Vista High School
Debut August 7, 1999
Final Game September 28, 2008
Born May 31, 1972 in Naha, Okinawa, Japan

Biographical Information[edit]

"Maury Wills once told me that there will come a point in my career when everyone in the ballpark will know that I have to steal a base, and I will steal that base. When I got out there, I knew that was what Maury Wills was talking about." -Dave Roberts

Dave Roberts had a ten-year career as an outfielder in the major leagues, recording what was probably the biggest stolen base in the history of the Boston Red Sox, then went on to a successful career as a manager, twice winning the World Series.

He was born in Japan in a mixed-race family, his father an American serviceman and his mother being Japanese. The family moved to California when he was one year old, and then lived across the country, as his father rose to the rank of master gunnery sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps. They finally settled down in the San Diego, CA area, which is where he went to high school, being part of the inaugural class at then brand new Rancho Buena Vista High School as a junior. He played baseball, basketball and football in high school, in addition to running track, but a knee injury in football practice almost brought his athletics career to an end before it had even started. He went on to attend UCLA as a walk-on, before his prowess on the baseball field earned him a scholarship. He set the school record for stolen bases in a season and for his career, and was second all-time in runs scored when he left, having earned a degree in history.

He had to wait until the 47th round of the 1993 amateur draft to be selected by the Cleveland Indians but still agreed to sign with them for a minimal bonus, knowing that the odds were stacked against him. He still managed to make it to the majors in August of 1999. That same year, he played for Team USA in the 1999 Pan American Games. The club's leadoff hitter, he hit .308 and stole four bases, the most in the competition. After two other seasons in which he saw only limited action with the Indians, he became a starter with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2002 and 2003, playing over 100 games both years. He stole 51 bases in 2002 and 39 the next year, the third-highest total in the National League both years.

He was traded to the Boston Red Sox midway through the 2004 season and is known for what is arguably the most important stolen base in team history. In Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS, with Boston down to the New York Yankees three games to none and trailing 4-3 in the bottom of the 9th inning, he came in as a pinch runner for Kevin Millar, who had drawn a lead-off walk against Mariano Rivera. He immediately stole second base, then came in to score on Bill Mueller's single to tie the game. Boston went on to win the game in extra innings. That kicked off the Red Sox's incredible comeback that sent them to their first World Series title since 1918. He then finished his career with two seasons each with the San Diego Padres in 2005 and 2006, and two with the San Francisco Giants in 2007 and 2008. His two seasons with San Diego were the best of his career, as he maintained an OPS+ over 100 both years, and stole 49 bases in 2006, in addition to scoring 80 runs and hitting .293.

After his retirement as a player, Roberts worked for the Padres in their baseball operations department. In May 2010, it was announced that he was suffering from Hodgkin's lymphoma and would need to undergo chemotherapy. He defeated the cancer, as subsequent tests conducted a year later showed no return of the condition. He then became a coach for the Padres in 2011. He served as the Padres' first base coach from 2011 to 2013. He moved up to bench coach in 2014 and started the 2015 season in the same role. On June 15th of that year he was named interim manager, replacing Bud Black. After the Padres lost that day's game, he was replaced by Pat Murphy, who was managing the El Paso Chihuahuas, San Diego's AAA affiliate in the Pacific Coast League, and he returned to his bench coach duties for the rest of the season.

After the season, he was one of a large number of candidates identified as a potential successor for Don Mattingly as manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He was considered an outsider, given his lack of managerial experience, but he impressed during the interview stage and was the surprise winner of the competition on November 23rd, getting the job for the 2016 season. The Dodgers were confident in his ability to get the most out of talented but underperforming budding stars like Yasiel Puig and Joc Pederson to complements their slew of highly-paid superstars. The Dodgers, and especially President Andrew Friedman, were also impressed by his knowledge of analytics and his front office experience, a marked contrast with old-school predecessor Mattingly. Also working in his favor was the fact he had played for the Dodgers and had been a star at UCLA.

Roberts had a very auspicious debut as a full-time manager, as the Dodgers won their first three games of 2016, all by shutout. In his fourth game, on April 8th, he was faced with a tough decision, as his starting pitcher, Ross Stripling was making his major league debut, and was pitching a no-hit shutout when he reached his pitch count limit of 100 after walking Angel Pagan of the San Francisco Giants with one out in the 8th. Roberts decided to replace Stripling with reliever Chris Hatcher, denying him a shot at history, and Hatcher quickly surrendered a two-run homer to Trevor Brown. Dave's managerial opponent that day, Bruce Bochy, told the press he would have made the same decision had he been in his position. He was placed in a similar position on September 10th, when Rich Hill started off a game against the Miami Marlins with seven perfect innings. He had only needed 89 pitches to go that far, but Roberts was concerned over Hill's previous struggles with blister problems and decided to pull him in favor of Joe Blanton, who gave up a hit with two outs in the 8th. The Dodger won handily, 5-0, but Roberts told the media it was one of the hardest decisions he had ever had to make: "This is probably the worst I've felt after a win," he told reporters. The Dodgers finished in first place in the NL West, and Roberts led them to a win over the Washington Nationals in the NLDS before they fell to the Chicago Cubs in the NLCS. After the season, he was rewarded for the team's excellent showing by being named the winner of the NL's Manager of the Year Award.

The Dogders repeated as NL West champions in 2017, but it was a strange season. After a decent start, the team caught fire in May following the call-up of rookie Clay Bellinger, who replaced injured veteran Adrian Gonzalez at first base. They were winning games at an unprecedented pace for a while that had them threatening the all-time record for wins in a season. They then hit a completely unexpected roadblock in late August, when they went on an unexplainable streak of losing 16 of 17 games; they had built such a huge lead that they were never threatened with not making the postseason, but the concern was that what had seemed like an unstoppable machine was now completely misfiring. However, the team finished strong, ending with 104 wins. On August 23rd, Roberts had a flashback when once again Rich Hill made a tremendous start, flirting with a perfect game and then completing 9 no-hit hittings after a 9th-inning error, but his teammates were unable to score a run for him against the Pittsburgh Pirates. This time, Roberts decided to extend his mercurial starter, having him begin the 10th inning in the hope of keeping the no-no alive, but a lead-off homer by Josh Harrison sadled him with a 1-0 loss. In the postseason, the Dodgers rolled over the Arizona Diamondbacks in the NLDS and the Chicago Cubs in the NLCS to reach the World Series for the first time since 1988. They extended the Houston Astros to seven games before bowing out, with two poor starting performance by mid-season acquisition Yu Darvish making the difference in favor of Houston. In the series, Roberts was notorious for the little confidence he showed in his starting pitchers, taxing his bullpen to the max (Brandon Morrow became only the second man to pitch in all seven games of a postseason series) as he tried to leverage a perceived advantage created by his deeper bullpen. While the final result may have been disappointing, there was no denying this had been another extremely successful season for Roberts.

In 2018, the Dodgers stumbled out of the gate because of a rash of injuries, but they eventually managed to turn things around and finished in first place in the NL West, although it took a one-game playoff against the Colorado Rockies to do so. After that, they rolled over the Atlanta Braves in the Division Series and eliminated the resilient Milwaukee Brewers in seven games in the NLCS to return to the World Series. There, they met a juggernaut in a very inspired Boston Red Sox team completing a record-breaking season, and only managed to win one game, that being an 18-inning marathon in Game 3. While the final result was again a disappointment, there were not as many "what ifs" asked after the World Series loss, and everyone recognized that Roberts had done a great job just taking the team that far under trying circumstances. He was rewarded after the season with a four-year extension keeping him as the manager until 2022.

The Dodgers continued their run of postseason appearances in 2019 when they won 106 games and another division title, but they were upset by the Washington Nationals, who would go on to win the World Series, at the Division Series stage. In the topsy-turvy pandemic-shortened season of 2020, the Dodgers finally put it all together. While their 43 wins during the regular season does not sound impressive at first glance, it was done in just 60 games and represented the highest total in the majors. The Dodgers then went on to win their first World Series since 1988 under unusual circumstances, as all games in the first round were played without spectators present (as all regular season games had been), then the next three rounds took place in neutral sites, including the World Series against the Tampa Bay Rays that were played at brand-new Globe Life Field in Arlington, TX with attendance limited to just a quarter of the ballpark's total capacity. The pandemic also prevented the team from holding a proper victory parade after defeating the Rays in six games, so everyone involved was left with a sense of underachievement.

The Dodgers had one of their best season in recent memory in 2021, winning 106 games during the regular season, but they did not even win their division as the San Francisco Giants set a franchise record for wins and beat them by one game. The Dodgers were forced to play a tense Wild Card Game against the St. Louis Cardinals, then defeated the Giants in a showdown of titans that reached the limit in the Division Series. In their run to the Championship the year before, the Dodgers' toughest opponents had been the Atlanta Braves, who had come close to upsetting them in the NLCS, and they faced the Dodgers again at the same stage of the postseason in 2021, but this time came out ahead. Like the last four teams who had defeated the Dodgers in a postseason, the Braves would go on to win the World Series that year.

In 2022, after Roberts' contract was extended for another three years in spring training, the Dodgers rolled over the competition in the regular season, winning 111 games but were upset by the San Diego Padres in the Division Series, then in 2023 another 100-win season - the Dodgers' fifth in seven years - resulted again in a quick exit from the postseason, this time at the hand of the Arizona Diamondbacks in the Division Series. As it was increasingly looking like the 2020 championship was one of the aberrations brought about by COVID, the Dodgers put it all together in 2024, following the off-season signing of superstar Shohei Ohtani, who won the MVP Award in his first season with his new team. The Dodgers actually had their lowest win total since 2018 in finishing with 98 wins, but it was still the highest total in the majors, and was done with Roberts having to juggle with a pitching staff decimated by injuries. He had to go through the postseason with only two reliable starting pitchers, patching things up as best as possible on other days. The Padres once again gave them trouble at the Division Series stage, pushing the series to the limit of seven games, but the Dodgers then pulled off a "New York, New York" sweep, defeating the Mets in the NLCS and the Yankees in a glamour-filled World Series. This time no one could begrudge the championship as being the result of unusual circumstances - the Dodgers had been truly dominant and defeated all challengers fair and square. In March of 2025 the Dodgers rewarded Roberts for his run of success with a contract extension through 2029 that made him the highest-paid manager in major league history with an annual salary of $8 million.

In 2025, the Dodgers opened their season with a two-game series against the Chicago Cubs at the Tokyo Dome, making the first time he had a chance to play or manage an official game in his country of birth. He considered it a great chance: "This is one of the most exciting Opening Days I’ve ever had -- from a player to a coach to a manager -- opening up the season in Tokyo. My aunts, my uncles, my cousins are all going to be able to see. I love the country of Japan."

Dave's son Cole Roberts was a 38th-round pick in the 2019 amateur draft.

Notable Achievements[edit]

Won a World Series with the Boston Red Sox in 2004 (he did not play in the World Series)

NL Manager of the Year Award: 2016
Division Titles: 9 (2016-2020 & 2022-2025)
Other Postseason Appearance: 1 (2021/Wild Card)
NL Pennants: 5 (2017, 2018, 2020, 2024 & 2025)
100 Wins Seasons as Manager: 5 (2017, 2019 & 2021-2023)
Managed three World Series Champions with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2020, 2024 and 2025

Preceded by
Don Mattingly

Los Angeles Dodgers Manager
2016-

Succeeded by
current

Year-By-Year Managerial Record[edit]

Year	Team	League	Record	Finish	Organization	Playoffs	Notes
2015	San Diego Padres	National League	0-1	--	San Diego Padres		interim between Bud Black (32-33) and Pat Murphy on June 15
2016	Los Angeles Dodgers	National League	91-71	1st	Los Angeles Dodgers	Lost NLCS
2017	Los Angeles Dodgers	National League	104-58	1st	Los Angeles Dodgers	Lost World Series
2018	Los Angeles Dodgers	National League	92-71	1st	Los Angeles Dodgers	Lost World Series
2019	Los Angeles Dodgers	National League	106-56	1st	Los Angeles Dodgers	Lost NLDS
2020	Los Angeles Dodgers	National League	43-17	1st	Los Angeles Dodgers	World Series Champs
2021	Los Angeles Dodgers	National League	106-56	2nd	Los Angeles Dodgers	Lost NLCS
2022	Los Angeles Dodgers	National League	111-51	1st	Los Angeles Dodgers	Lost NLDS
2023	Los Angeles Dodgers	National League	100-62	1st	Los Angeles Dodgers	Lost NLDS
2024	Los Angeles Dodgers	National League	98-64	1st	Los Angeles Dodgers	World Series Champs
2025	Los Angeles Dodgers	National League	93-69	1st	Los Angeles Dodgers	World Series Champs
2026	Los Angeles Dodgers	National League			Los Angeles Dodgers

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Dave Roberts (roberda07)

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Biographical Information[edit]

Notable Achievements[edit]

Year-By-Year Managerial Record[edit]

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