At the 2019 exit meeting for Dodgers President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman, there were understandably a number of questions surrounding manager Dave Roberts. Namely his status, and questions about the decisions he made in LA’s game 5 loss last week.
As expected, Friedman was complimentary of the 4-year manager.
Here’s the short and sweet takeaway on Roberts’ status going forward.
The whole thing is… focusing on how we get to winning those 11 games in October, and in our mind Dave is absolutely a part of that and is an additive part of doing that.
Of course we already learned Doc would be back — he has three years left on a deal signed last off-season — so that wasn’t exactly news. What this press conference did offer was Friedman the opportunity to open up on his thoughts regarding Dave’s in-game decision making in game 5, and the season as a whole.
We won 106 games and I think between Dave Roberts, [pitching coach] Rick Honeycutt, [bench coach] Bob Geren… they’ve demonstrated a really strong ability to make in-game moves. They don’t work all work out, but more often than not the questions I have end up playing out in a favorable way.
Friedman was never going to put his manager on the spot in front of the media, but the sense of frustration was there. While Roberts will retain his job in 2020, there will be changes beside him on the bench.
A move to a front office role for Rick Honeycutt was already announced, but there is also the reasonable expectation that Bob Geren will leave the organization for one of MLB’s unprecedented seven (and counting) managerial openings.
If any of the impending changes add another experienced voice to aide Roberts with in-game tactics, surely Dodger fans would be ecstatic.
