It’s difficult to remember a season when Dave Roberts wasn’t overseeing the Los Angeles Dodgers dynasty at the field level.
Roberts and the Dodgers started the 2026 campaign with a big target on their organizational back. Having won two consecutive World Series championships, they have been built by Andrew Friedman, the club’s president of baseball operations, to challenge for a third title in as many seasons.
Since MLB’s expansion era, beginning in 1961, only the New York Yankees (1998–2000) and the Oakland A’s (1972–1974) have been able to collect three championships in a row. From Los Angeles’s off-season shopping spree of signing free agent closer Edwin Diaz to a three-year, $69 million contract and the versatile infielder-outfielder-designated hitter Michael Tucker, the most sought-after free-agent to a budget-bursting four-year, $240 million deal, who could offer a rational counterpoint to the Dodgers being the last club standing in October?
With all the mega stars in their lineup and on the bench waiting for a call to Dodger duty, it’s Roberts pushing the buttons on who has the green light to produce and who looks at a red light waiting to warm up. With 10 full seasons behind him as the Dodgers skipper, for a player who was a 28th-round draft selection out of UCLA (781 overall pick) by the Detroit Tigers, his continued success in plotting game strategies is Cooperstown-esque.
Since taking the helm in 2016, Roberts has recorded five seasons of registering 100 or more victories. In 2022, oddly enough, a season that saw the San Diego Padres topple the Dodgers in four games of the National League Division Series, Los Angeles dominated their challenges to the tune of earning 111 wins.
New York Post reporter Jack Harris spoke with Roberts this past Jan. 25, prior to spring training, about the Dodgers being the team all other MLB franchises are looking to squelch any attempt for a World Series three-peat. Roberts addressed the pressures of regularly being at the top of the MLB standings.
“I think it puts it on [the players] and myself and the coaches to keep that incentive to be a team that wins three in a row,” Roberts said. “I have enough trust with our players that when I talk about things like that, they talk about things like that, we’re not gonna run from it. I think our guys can understand and manage that, and that comes with experience.”
Consistency with his coaching staff and having a familiar roster to work with each season, with an annual free-agent or two added to the fold, is what makes Roberts’ job in steering the 26-man roster that much less challenging. Pitching coach Mark Prior, third base coach Dino Ebel, and first base coach Chris Woodward, himself a former MLB manager, have been members of Roberts’ staff for the past two World Series titles won. Roberts’ peripheral is covered by his trusted assistants. Their planning and their players’ success make them ultra-popular with their fan base.
In 2025, the Dodgers drew 4,012,470 fans at home over 81 games—good for an average of 49,536 fans per game. Los Angeles led second-place San Diego Padres by more than 500,000 fans brought to their home ballpark. The Dodgers were also the top drawing club on the road.
Right from the first game on the Dodgers’ spring training Cactus League schedule last month, the World Series champs picked up where they left off last fall. Beginning with Feb. 21, a 15–2 dominance of the Los Angeles Angels on the road in Diablo Stadium in Tempe, Arizona, the Dodgers have won 15 of their first 20 exhibition games. Heading into Saturday’s game with the Chicago White Sox at Camelback Ranch-Glendale (shared home complex between Los Angeles and the White Sox), the Dodgers have 11 more practice games until they officially begin the defense of their 2025 championship on March 26 at Dodger Stadium against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Predicted to be the top MLB club in 2026, one of the key pitchers for the Dodgers that Roberts is watching closely in camp is Roki Sasaki. On March 10, Orange County Register sportswriter Bill Plunkett relayed what Roberts’ observations are thus far through spring training for the Dodgers’ hopes of making Sasaki a starting pitcher.
“I’m betting on the performance to continue to trend up,” Roberts said.
“Couldn’t have asked for a better day,” he said. “But still, the split still plays to hitters if it’s on the plate. The fastball, if it’s commanded, still plays.
“There’s still value to getting hitters out and seeing guys swing and miss. We accomplished what we wanted to today, built him up. Obviously built in some confidence. So just go from there.”
The B-game that Sasaki pitched opposite the White Sox on Thursday saw the Japanese hurler throw 59 pitches, 40 strikes, and 17 whiffs.
Keeping track of the “Dodgers Who’s Who of All-Stars lineup” consisting of Shohei Ohtani pitching and being the designated hitter, Mookie Betts at shortstop, Freddie Freeman covering first base, the outfield shared by Tucker, Teoscar Hernandez, Andy Pages, and Tommy Edman, along with a parade of standouts on the bench, in the bullpen, and filling out a starting pitching rotation is Roberts to keep happy. Finding playing time for all, and still getting the desired outcome during a 162-game grind, this is where Roberts earns his keep in Los Angeles. He’s done it before, and by all indications, Roberts will do it again—for a third consecutive season.
