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Inside Dodgers boss Dave Roberts’ grim career crisis that left him questioning – before it all changed
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- Inside Dodgers boss Dave Roberts’ grim career crisis that left him questioning – before it all changed
Whenever he ponders his professional future, Dave Roberts asks himself a simple question: What are you chasing?
A couple years ago, the answer left him with an "unsettling" feeling.
Before the Dodgers cemented their modern-day dynasty over the last two seasons, before they won back-to-back championships that burnished the legacy of their superstar roster and historically successful veteran manager, before they climbed to heights few clubs in more than a century of Major League Baseball have ever reached, a sense of uncertainty gnawed at Roberts as he considered the state of his career and his personal fulfillment in one of sports' highest-profile posts.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts looks on during batting practice before game one of the World Series against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Center on October 24, 2025 in Toronto, Ontario. Getty Images
He had the winningest managerial record in MLB history , plus a World Series ring from the Dodgers ' pandemic-altered 2020 championship.
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But he was also "kind of thinking, 'How much longer do I want to do this?'" he recalled, after early postseason eliminations in 2022 and 2023 had prompted external questions about his job security and an internal period of self-reflection within him.
"It was like, 'What am I doing this for?'" Roberts told The California Post recently, sitting down for lunch at a beachside restaurant near his offseason home in San Diego . "I love the question, 'What are you chasing?' And I was there at home, [after] you lose, and you're like, 'What am I chasing?' Am I chasing a championship? We already won one. Is that going to bring me joy and fulfillment? I didn't have an answer."
Dave Roberts gives an interview after the Los Angeles Dodgers Workouts day at Tokyo Dome on March 17, 2025 in Tokyo, Japan Getty Images
"That's unsettling," he added, "when you don't have an answer to, 'what are you chasing?'"
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Two years later, all those doubts have washed away now.
Entering 2026, Roberts is at the pinnacle of his managerial career, on the verge of a World Series three-peat that he feels has validated the "steadfast [way] in how we've done things" over the last decade.
Roberts celebrates after beating the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 7 of the World Series, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025, in Toronto. AP
"We've been very consistent," he said, citing everything from front-office and ownership stability to the culture the Dodgers have cultivated in their clubhouse. "I think that for us to look back on how we've won, I feel proud of that."
He has felt a newfound embrace from the fan base, letting go of old frustrations –– "There's times that I was resentful," he admitted of the public criticisms he took earlier in his Dodgers tenure –– while expressing a deep gratitude for the way "they show up to support us every night."
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"I'd rather have fans that are passionate and care, even at the cost of me getting booed at home in a World Series," he joked. "Which, I think I might hold the record with that."
Most of all, Roberts has found a renewed satisfaction in his work. A purpose, he explained, that goes beyond wins and losses and championship rings.
"Now, I just feel I'm chasing happiness, joy and success –– whatever that means," he said. "It's certainly championships. But there's a lot of other parts for me that I feel confident that I'm achieving."
Roberts points back to last October's title defense, highlighting the "complete buy-in" he received from the roster while managing an all-hands-on-deck pitching staff and shuffling players in and out of the lineup.
Shohei Ohtani and Dave Roberts celebrate after their World Series win in 2025. AP
"Not one time was I questioned on my decision-making [by the players], which in turn would question their commitment to the team," he said. "They all felt their time was coming. They all felt that their roles were really valued. I don't think that any head coach or manager can say that."
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He cites his own growth in the dugout, and the way he feels his decision-making has "really slowed down" after a decade on the top step.
"I think that with Father Time as an athlete, there's a bell curve," he said. "But with coaching, your best years are with experience and as you get older. That's the irony. And I do feel that I'm much more wise … At 53, I feel like I'm just scratching the surface."
Roberts is at the pinnacle of his managerial career being on the verge of a World Series three-peat. Getty Images
And as he begins a new four-year contract he signed last spring (which came with a record-setting $8.1 million annual salary), Roberts is no longer grappling his questions about his professional future.
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"I'm not gonna say I'm going to manage for as long as Tommy [Lasorda] and Walt Alston," he said, referencing his Hall-of-Fame predecessors' 20-plus-year tenures with the club. "But I don't see myself going anywhere for a while."
Instead, the former big-league outfielder has made lifestyle changes he hopes will extend his managerial prime. Late last season, he overhauled his diet and almost entirely cut out alcohol. Over the course of this offseason, he got noticeably trimmer while shedding 12 pounds.
"I think that for us to look back on how we've won, I feel proud of that," Roberts said. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
"I'm in the best shape of my managerial career," Roberts joked, while sipping on a purple beet and carrot detox juice and picking at a rice bowl with chicken.
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"It was in August, probably after we got swept in Pittsburgh , where I was like, 'I need to make a change … It was a look in the mirror moment, where I said I was fat, I didn't shave in three days, and I was like, 'I'm not doing this.'"
After all, Roberts didn't want to be one of those "leaders or coaches that sort of let themselves go, where you look tired and beat up" (and no, he's not naming names).
"I do think there's an optics part of it," he said. "If I come in looking healthy, and my energy is up, then I do think it can reflect [in] the clubhouse."
He didn't want to end up back in the place he was a couple years ago, either, wondering what he was chasing in a job that –– even beyond all the recent winning –– has him reinvigorated in both body and mind now.
"I'm enjoying the heck out of this," he said. "I'm just re-energized. I really am."
