Shohei Ohtani joined the Los Angeles Dodgers for the 2024 MLB season, the first year of a historic 10-year, $700 million pact he signed as a free agent. A year later, Ohtani has added a third MVP award — and his first World Series ring — to an ever-growing trophy cabinet that seems destined to make him one of the greatest players in baseball’s long history.
Ohtani’s record-smashing deal paved the way for the Dodgers to continue adding talent around him, spending money that other owners around MLB refuse to spend. Ohtani wanted stability above all else when he joined the Dodgers — and a key figure who helped ease his transition is poised to stick around for a while now, too.
Record-setting deal for Dave Roberts
According to multiple reports on Monday, the Dodgers have reached an agreement with their manager Dave Roberts on a four-year contract extension worth more than $8 million annually. The deal makes Roberts, 52, the highest-paid manager in MLB — a reward for the Dodgers’ consistency since his appointment as the manager in 2016.
Roberts, a former World Series champion as a player with the Boston Red Sox, has two rings as the Dodgers’ manager, most recently when he guided the Dodgers to a five-game series win over the New York Yankees in the 2024 Fall Classic. Roberts, a speedy outfielder during his playing days, has rung up a win-loss record of 851-506 over the past nine seasons; his .627 winning percentage is the highest-ever for a manager with at least 1,000 games under his belt, and he has brought Los Angeles to the World Series four times in the past eight years.
The 2025 Dodgers will have another talent-rich roster; aside from Ohtani, the elite crop of players at Roberts’ disposal includes former MVP Mookie Betts, slugger Freddie Freeman, and pitchers Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Roki Sasaki, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, and future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw. Los Angeles is favored to reach the World Series again this coming season, but the franchise is set up for success for the remainder of the decade, given how it has accumulated so much talent and how willing its ownership is to spend in order to win.
