Dodgers keeping Roberts as manager despite latest early playoff exit

Despite another early exit from the postseason, the Los Angeles Dodgers won’t be making any major changes in the dugout.

Dave Roberts will return as the Dodgers’ manager, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman confirmed during Tuesday’s end-of-season press conference, according to Eric Stephen of True Blue LA. Roberts’ coaching staff is also expected to remain intact next year.

Roberts led the Dodgers to another 100-win season this summer, his fifth in eight seasons managing the club. However, the regular-season success didn’t translate to October, with the No. 6-seeded Arizona Diamondbacks sweeping the team in the NLDS.

However, Friedman said he doesn’t blame the postseason letdown on Roberts, adding that everyone in the organization can take responsibility.

“The one thing I can say with absolute certainty – and there aren’t many things I can do that about – as we postmortem, it was certainly not from a lack of effort,” Friedman said. “Watching the way these guys prepared, cared, and did everything they could to put themselves in the best position to go out and have success.

“Now, we didn’t do it, and that ultimately is what matters most, so it’s figuring out from that. But I think Doc (and) our coaching staff did a good job this year, and none of us did a good job for any of those three games against Arizona.”

The Dodgers have never missed the playoffs under Roberts, whose .630 winning percentage is the highest in AL/NL history. But for all of that success, his teams have routinely come up short in October.

Roberts has lost two of his three World Series appearances, with his lone victory coming during the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign. The Dodgers were eliminated in the NLCS in 2021 and upset by the San Diego Padres in last year’s NLDS after a franchise-record 111-win campaign.

The 51-year-old guided this year’s Dodgers to 100 wins despite injuries decimating the pitching staff over the season. In the playoffs, Los Angeles’ three starting pitchers combined to allow 13 runs in just 4.2 innings against Arizona, while star MVP candidates Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman went a combined 1-for-21.

Roberts’ contract with the Dodgers runs through 2025, according to Cot’s Contracts.

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