Dave Roberts is expected to be named the next manager of the Dodgers on Monday, according to multiple people familiar with the situation who spoke under the condition of anonymity because the hiring hasn’t been officially announced. He becomes the fourth Dodgers manager to also play for the franchise, joining Tom Lasorda, Bill Russell and Glenn Hoffman. But that is not something teams looked at when looking at Roberts as a managerial candidate.
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Roberts joins Dusty Baker, just hired by the Nationals, and Fredi Gonzalez of the Braves as one of three minorities now managing in Major League Baseball.
In the AL championship series, Boston was three outs from being swept by the Yankees.
He will succeed Don Mattingly, who mutually parted ways with the team last month after five years that included winning three consecutive NL West titles but never reaching the World Series.
It appears as though the search for a new bench boss is over for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Mattingly left via mutual agreement with the Dodgers after five seasons, and he subsequently took the manager’s job with the Miami Marlins. The field was believed to be reduced to two, Roberts and Gabe Kapler the Dodgers’ Director of Player Development.
As for Roberts, he’ll inherit a 92-win team and a payroll that’s already in excess of $150 million for 2016. The team also has a vacancy at second base and an overcrowded outfield that includes the talented but polarizing Yasiel Puig. Now, the Dodgers are hoping his head-and heart-can do the same thing in Southern California.
Roberts was born in Japan and went to high school in Vista, CA. He encouraged Roberts’ ambitions when they were in San Diego together. Roberts spent the better part of eight seasons in the minors and didn’t establish himself in the big leagues until 2002, the year he turned 30.
But then the Dodgers’ owners got involved, sources indicate, and the Kapler parade slowed down. “I thought I played a few great tennis even in the final”, Federer said on court.
Details of Roberts’ contract still need to be worked out.
As Wills had been decades earlier, Roberts was a fast runner.
The Dodgers will have to assemble a coaching staff around Roberts.
In the news release issued by the Dodgers, Andrew Friedman, president of baseball operations, said: “We could not have been more impressed with him through this process”.
Roberts played 21/2 seasons with the Dodgers. He’s been a first base coach and a bench coach for the Padres, but to Red Sox fans, he’ll always be remembered for what he did in October 2004.
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He ended his 10-year career in 2008 with the Giants. On the first pitch to Bill Mueller, Roberts tore for second base, narrowly beating a throw from Jorge Posada. Roberts would have a scare in 2010 after being diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, but has made a full recovery.
