LOS ANGELES—On Monday, November 4, the Los Angeles Dodgers hired former Dodgers player Dave Roberts as the team’s new manager.
Roberts, 43, is set to replace Don Mattingly, who mutually parted ways with the Dodgers last month after managing the team for the last 5 seasons. Mattingly is currently the new manger for the Miami Marlins.
A formal introduction of Roberts’ new role will take place on December 1 during a Dodgers Stadium news conference.
Roberts, who will receive a three-year contract with the team holding an option to keep him for a fourth year, will become the first minority manager of the franchise. His father is African American and his mother is Japanese. Roberts was born in Okinawa, Japan, where his father served in the U.S. Marines. He will join two other minority managers in the major leagues, including Dusty Baker, hired by the Washington Nationals this month, and Fredi Gonzalez of the Atlanta Braves.
The Los Angeles Dodgers official Twitter account confirmed the news, tweeting, “Welcome back Dave! Dave Roberts has been named the 10th manager in Los Angeles Dodgers History.”
Roberts was a former Dodger outfielder who played for the team from 2002-2004. He also played for the Cleveland Indians, Boston Red Sox, San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants.
“It’s hard for me to put into words what it means to be named manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers,” Roberts said in a team-issued news release. “This is truly the opportunity of a lifetime. The Dodgers are the ground-breaking franchise of Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, Sandy Koufax, Maury Wills, Fernando Valenzuela and Hideo Nomo. When I put on this uniform as a player, I understood the special responsibility to honor those that played before me as well as the amazing bond between the Dodgers and their fans. I feel that I have now come full circle in my career and there is plenty of unfinished business left in L.A.”
Roberts, who spent the last five years as a coach with the San Diego Padres, has no previous major league managerial experience, and managed to be a finalist for the job along with Dodgers’ Director of Player Development Gabe Kapler.
“We’re extremely excited to bring Dave Roberts on board as the next manager of the Dodgers,” said Dodgers’ President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman. “We could not have been more impressed with him through this process. His energy is infectious and he has the rare ability to make a genuine connection with every person he comes across. He has developed strong leadership qualities and accumulated a breadth of baseball experience over his career as both a player and coach. He is a “baseball man” and “people person” in the truest sense of those words. We feel fully confident that he will effectively lead our team in pursuit of its ultimate goal — bringing a world championship back to the city of Los Angeles.”
Roberts survived a March 2010 diagnosis of Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and in October of that same year, he replaced Rick Renteria as the San Diego Padres’ first base coach. After receiving ongoing treatments for lymphoma, Roberts reported he received clean scans by June 2011.
