Dodgers' Dave Roberts deserves 4-year, $35 million contract extension after 2024 masterclass

Dave Roberts agreed to a massive contract extension to become the highest-paid manager in MLB history on an annual basis, according to Jon Heyman of the New York Post.

Roberts signed a four-year, $35 million contract on Monday, making him the highest-paid manager by annual value in baseball history. If he stays in Los Angeles for the duration of the contract, he'll also be the longest tenured manager with a single team since 1999, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today.

You'd be hard pressed to find a manager more deserving of a contract like this than Roberts.

For much of his time with the Dodgers, Roberts has been a polarizing figure. Since he took over in 2016, the Dodgers have won at least 91 games every single season, but have often fallen well short of expectations in the playoffs. Prior to last year, they'd won just one World Series, in the COVID-19-shortened 2020 campaign, but had lost in the NLDS three times, the NLCS twice, and the World Series twice.

Many fans blamed Roberts' decision making for most of those exits, as Los Angeles frequently had the best on-paper roster in all of baseball.

All that changed last season. Roberts delivered a managerial masterclass throughout a seemingly cursed and injury-plagued season, guiding them to 98 wins, their eighth division title in nine years, and, eventually their second World Series title, a convincing sweep over the New York Yankees.

He managed that feat despite lacking any kind of consistent middle infield presence, slotting superstar outfielder Mookie Betts in at both second and shortstop at various points in the year, and went into the playoffs with just two reliable starting pitchers in the rotation who were healthy, and a third in Walker Buehler who had struggled to find his form in between recurring injury issues.

Roberts handled the situation masterfully, working bullpen days and making sure that his starters were deployed for maximum effectiveness throughout all three playoff series, including a World Series in which they stomped the Yankees into dust.

With that run to a title, Roberts finally silenced critics who pointed out that despite the Dodgers' perpetually stacked roster and seemingly endless depth of prospects, they couldn't put together a full season and playoff run. Now, he's done it with a flawed roster and very little reliable starting pitching, and comes into this season with one of the most terrifying rosters ever assembled in baseball history.

The expectations in Los Angeles are sky high once again, but Roberts has proved himself to be well up for the job, and this new contract locks him into the City of Angels for the forseeable future.