Column: Shohei Ohtani’s Dodgers celebration is no party for Dave Roberts
The stage in the center-field pavilion was brimming with Dodgers royalty.
There, smiling in front of dozens of cameras was Shohei Ohtani, Mark Walter, Andrew Friedman, Ohtani’s agent Nez Balelo and Ohtani’s longtime interpreter Ippei Mizuhara.
Seemingly every person who is important to Ohtani’s Dodgers success this season basked in the spotlight, save one.
Dave Roberts sat in the audience. What was Dave Roberts doing sitting in the audience?
The coronation of a news conference Thursday at Dodger Stadium contained 700 million reasons why Othani picked the Dodgers to celebrate his unique skills.
Yet, strangely, their record-setting manager didn’t seem to be one of those reasons.
Roberts wasn’t introduced before the presser. Ohtani made it clear during the presser that his contract was with Walter and Friedman, no mention of Roberts. Then after the presser, Roberts was only granted a few minutes to answer a handful of questions while sitting with Friedman and general manager Brandon Gomes.
One of those questions was about whether the signing puts more pressure on the Dodgers to win now.
“It certainly does,” Roberts said. “Us three sitting up here, Mark [Walter] and our staff and our fans, this is what we dream of, to have the highest of expectations.”
Guess who will bear the weight of those increased expectations? Yeah, the guy who spent the afternoon in the shadows.
Another question centered on Roberts’ seemingly strained relationship with the front-office types after he openly annoyed them during last week’s winter meetings when he broke the Ohtani Rules by acknowledging the team had met with the superstar free agent and considered him a priority. For at least a day, it seemed as if Roberts was at odds with his bosses, not a good look for either party.
Was Roberts relieved that his breaking the code of silence didn’t kill the deal?
“I don’t know,” he said. “It ended really well.”
Are he and Friedman OK?
“We’ve been OK from the very beginning,” he said.
Friedman was asked the same question.
“We had a good conversation,” he said. “We’re good.”
Are they? It’s hard to tell. But it’s clear the Ohtani signing puts Roberts under the microscope like never before.
The Dodgers have to win a championship sooner than later, with this new increased heat subtly coming from their new virtual co-owner. Ohtani won’t ever do anything to get a manager fired, but he can certainly withhold his support if the Dodgers aren’t winning titles. He went through four managers in six years in Anaheim, and he’s not backing another first-round collapse.
The way he heard the Dodgers, their last 10 years have been a first-round collapse.
“When I had the meeting with them, the ownership group, they said when they look back at the last 10 years, even though they’ve been to the playoffs every single year, won a World Series ring, they consider that a failure,” Ohtani explained through his interpreter. “When I heard that, I knew they were all about winning.”
Does that mean there are people in the organization who look at Roberts’ eight seasons as a failure? Because that’s just crazy. He’s had his postseason missteps, certainly, but lately those have been a result of the front office’s failure to provide adequate pitching, and his consistent summers have constantly put them in a position to win.
Many Dodgers fans think of Roberts as a dugout Brandon Staley. Those fans need to think again.
The Dodgers have won at least 100 games in five of his eight seasons, his .630 winning percentage is the best in baseball history among managers with at least 1,000 games, and he has three World Series appearances and one World Series championship.
With his endless energy and eternal optimism, Roberts is slowly becoming the new Tommy Lasorda, and he should increasingly play a bigger role in the Dodgers’ family portrait.
But during Thursday’s picturesque open house, he did not.
Ohtani was asked about the unique clause in his contract that would allow him to opt out of the 10-year deal if chairman Walter or baseball president Friedman left the team.
There was understandably no mention of Roberts in that contract, but also no mention of Roberts in his explanation.
“Everybody has to be on the same page in order to have a winning organization,” Ohtani said of Walter and Friedman. “I feel like those two are on top of it and they’re in control of everything … I feel almost like I’m having a contract with those two guys and I feel like if one of them were gone and we’ll not be the same page, things might get a little out of control … I just wanted like, a safety net.”
News flash for Ohtani: Roberts is your safety net.
Despite the two recent first-round collapses, Roberts is coming off his best managerial season yet — he won a division with half the team in bandages — and he’s the perfect person to guide this now volatile machine through the usual messes.
Ohtani has never experienced the major-league madness that can overtake a Dodgers clubhouse located loudly in the middle of an entertainment capital. He’ll soon learn that he’ll not only want Roberts on that wall, he’ll need him on that wall.
Roberts’ specialty is in muting that madness, having led the team through the distractions of Yasiel Puig, the demons of COVID, and the departures of stars such as Corey Seager and veterans such as Justin Turner.
Shohei Ohtani, baseball’s top free agent, agrees to a $700-million deal with the Dodgers. Here’s everything you need to know about Ohtani joining the Dodgers.
Roberts can be a big part of Ohtani’s happiness here if Ohtani gives him a chance. He’ll always publicly support him, he’ll be patient with him when he returns from his recent elbow surgery, and he’ll be flexible with him when he returns to the mound in 2025.
Oh yeah, and he’ll deftly handle the 200% increase in media attention that could require him to hold two news conferences in two different languages every day.
It seems as if Roberts is made for this moment, yet he might not be given long to embrace it.
The last time a Dodgers manager felt this much heat from a free-agent signing, a struggling Lasorda was handed Kirk Gibson in 1988. Lasorda had to make it work to ensure his job security. He did. He won a championship and stayed in the dugout eight more seasons.
If Roberts wants to hang with Ohtani, he’ll have to experience similar success, and quickly. His championship mandate has increased. His margin for error has lessened. There are 700 million reasons why.
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