Dave Roberts not shying away from past expectations

Mar 31, 2023 - 12:06 PM

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The 2023 regular season has finally commenced, and the Dodgers are looking to bounce back from a disappointing finish to last season. With their lofty annual expectations for every season, this year is no different for manager Dave Roberts, who is set to steer a team he had to quickly acclimate.

Roberts is entering his eighth season as manager for the Dodgers and within the past three full regular seasons, he has won more games than any other manager at 323. He has cultivated a clubhouse culture that relies on striving for the World Series every single season. Yet, even with all the tools handed to him last season, where his team won 111 games in the regular season, he simply wasn’t able to get the job done in the NLDS.

Watching the events ensue, seeing a rival team take down the mighty beasts up north, crushed Roberts internally. A trip to Europe to disconnect, as Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic reports, was beneficial in helping Roberts cope with what will now live in Dodgers’ infamy:

“For Roberts, it was not running away from the loss that was quickly dubbed a massive failure. It was about ‘survival,’ he said, a coping mechanism for the tolls of a job that has worn on him.”

Links

• Joe Davis has had to bear the responsibility as the successor to the late, great Vin Scully, and he has surpassed those expectations, allowing him to announce games in the World Baseball Classic. J.P. Hoonstra of the Orange County Register has more on what it meant for Davis to be a part of such a special experience, and to call one of the greatest at-bats of all time.
• Jon Weisman recapped an exciting opening day across MLB at his Slayed By Voices newsletter.
• Bill Plaschke at the Los Angeles Times wrote about the Dodgers newcomers.