One person who further established their Dodgers legacy during this postseason: Dave Roberts.
The Dodgers manager won his third World Series championship on Saturday night, and he drew plenty of praise from his players and the former players on the MLB on FOX broadcast desk.
“You know what makes a great manager?” Derek Jeter said. “Someone who trusts their players. Even when the outside world doesn’t, they trust their players. He knows. He takes the temperature of the clubhouse, he knows how players feel, he has more information than everyone else, and what Doc does is, he puts his players in a position to be successful.”
‘Someone who trusts his players’ 🙌 Derek Jeter praises Dodgers’ Dave Roberts for his Game 7 player management
Roberts had to push more buttons than ever this postseason because of the struggles that the Dodgers bullpen has had.
The Dodgers had six pitchers appear in Game 7, and four of those were their starting pitchers from this series. Roberts had to lean heavily on those four, as well as new closer Roki Sasaki.
“Ultimately,” Jeter said, “it’s up to the players to do the job, but he puts them in a position to be successful and he pushed all of the right buttons.”
Jeter wasn’t the only former player on the desk who had high praise for Roberts. Alex Rodriguez and David Ortiz both agreed with him, and there was also high praise that came from Freddie Freeman and Clayton Kershaw.
‘I was saying my prayers’ 🙏 Dave Roberts describes emotions during WILD Game 7
“You’ve got to give it to Doc Roberts,” A-Rod said. “Now, he’s a three-time World Champion, and it now cements him as a Hall of Fame manager.”
“Put him in Cooperstown,” Rodriguez added.
Roberts just finished his 10th season as Dodgers manager, and he is about to get his third World Series ring. He has a career win percentage of .621 in the regular season and has won 100 games five times.
Roberts signed a four-year extension with the Dodgers before this past season that made him the highest-paid manager on an annual basis in MLB. According to Ortiz, the team needs to make that deal longer.
“If I’m the Dodgers ownership, I would give Dave Roberts a very long-term deal,” Papi said. “He knows that ball club better than anybody that I’ve ever seen. He moves his players in a type of way that it seems like he knows the future … that’s why they’re the world champions today.
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