Dave Roberts, Dodgers agree to extension through 2022

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Dodgers began their week before the Winter Meetings dealing with an issue that was bound to come up, what was to become of Dave Roberts after the 2019 season.

The Dodgers had exercised their 2019 option but that possibly only moved their decision to end of the 2019 season. But there had also been hints that a longer extension was in the works.

Later last month, it was reported that Roberts was vacationing in Italy and that could have been a reason why talks had not produced the extension. Also, the Dodgers had also new coaches to hire plus the loss of former General Manager Farhan Zaidi to their long-time rival, the San Francisco Giants.

But Roberts was always there for his players. Kenley Jansen told MLB Network last week that Roberts was present after his surgery.

Today the Dodgers made it official and now they can move forward with their off-season plans with their manager in place through 2022.

In their press release, Andrew Friedman, Dodger President of Baseball Operations said “Keeping Doc as our leader on the field was a top priority this offseason and now that we’ve accomplished that we’re excited to collectively shift all of our focus to doing all we can to bring a World Championship to our passionate fans.”

Roberts is also quoted in the release saying in part “We’ve worked hard to develop a team and culture that will put us in a position to win the World Series every season but we still have yet to achieve our ultimate goal and that is what drives me each day. I want to thank Andrew, Stan Kasten and our outstanding ownership group for believing in me and keeping me in Dodger Blue, a uniform I’m so proud to wear.”

The Dodgers have the best record in the National League from 2016-2018 at 287-200 and are second only to the Houston Astros for the overall best regular season record for the past three seasons.