‘One of the best games I’ve ever seen managed’: Why this World Series was vindication for Dodgers’ Dave Roberts
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Alden Gonzalez, ESPN Staff Writer
Blake Treinen glanced toward his dugout, saw manager Dave Roberts emerge from it and, for a moment, felt demoralized. There were two runners on with one out in the eighth inning. The Los Angeles Dodgers clung to a one-run lead, a Yankee Stadium crowd of close to 50,000 people had sprung back into life, and Treinen, navigating his third inning, was exhausted. But a title was only five outs away. Giancarlo Stanton, the man due up, was supposed to be his primary matchup. Treinen didn’t want to leave — and Roberts didn’t intend to intervene.
He arrived to encourage. To comfort.
Roberts, near the end of his ninth tension-filled October as the Dodgers’ manager, placed both of his hands on Treinen’s chest to calm his nerves.
“Focus up,” Treinen recalled hearing. “This is your last guy.”
Roberts looked on from the dugout as Treinen induced a harmless popup to Stanton on the first pitch. When he saw Freddie Freeman wave him off out of the corner of his eye, he trusted his first baseman’s instincts and let Treinen stay for another hitter, Anthony Rizzo, and roared when it resulted in an inning-ending strikeout. In the ninth, with no legitimate reliever options left, he turned to Walker Buehler — a starter who hadn’t pitched out of the bullpen since 2018 — and watched as he retired three consecutive New York Yankees with ease.
The Dodgers had clinched a championship, the culmination of a month in which Roberts seemed to push every correct button. He trusted when it felt right, interceded when he needed to, went off script when moments demanded and navigated October with a keen sense for the pulse of his team. It was most obvious at the very end, in Game 5 of the World Series on Wednesday night — 24 hours after a bullpen game, with his starting pitcher recording only four outs, while using a record seven relievers in a title clincher.
“That’s one of the best games I’ve ever seen managed,” said Freeman, the World Series MVP. “That was special.”
For close to a decade, Roberts has been the most front-facing member of an organization that continually excelled during the regular season and came up short in the playoffs. Every dominant summer was credited to a star-laden roster and an astute front office, leaving Roberts to absorb the blame when things went wrong in the fall.
This October, though, served as Roberts’ stage for vindication — and might have cemented his place in the Hall of Fame. His maneuvering mitigated a short-handed starting rotation. His optimism anchored a team in desperate need of it.
“To be honest, Dave is the real reason why we’re here,” Mookie Betts said amid a raucous champagne celebration inside Yankee Stadium’s visiting clubhouse. “I know there’s a lot of talk about Doc, but Doc is the best, man. Doc loves each and every person in here, Doc has confidence in each and every person in here, Doc never lost confidence in anybody in here. And no matter what we went through, he was always positive.”
The defining moment, many of his players have said, actually came in September — specifically, Sept. 15 in Atlanta.
Tyler Glasnow was among the headliners of the Dodgers’ $1 billion offseason, brought in to anchor a rotation that underwhelmed in recent Octobers. But Glasnow’s elbow wasn’t responding. On Sept. 14, scans revealed he had suffered a sprain that would end his season, the latest in a string of devastating pitching injuries that would befall the team.
The Dodgers proceeded to suffer another listless loss to the Atlanta Braves that night, their seventh defeat in 12 games. The Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres were nipping at their heels for the top of the division, and the Dodgers didn’t know if they’d have enough pitching to get through October.
“It just felt like the entire year we kept getting dealt blow after blow,” third baseman Max Muncy said. “And then guys would come back, and then another blow, and guys would come back. It finally felt like we were turning the page and starting to see more guys come back than go down. Then your big pitcher gets told he can’t pitch the rest of the year, and that was kind of like, ‘Man, not again.’ It was just a big kick in the gut.”
Roberts isn’t one for team meetings; he prefers individual conversations with players. But on the afternoon of Sept. 15, it felt appropriate. That it was Roberto Clemente Day provided an ideal entry. He presented it as an opportunity to educate players on Clemente’s legacy, but mostly used it to offer them an important reminder: that so many All-Stars, MVPs and future Hall of Famers still dotted their clubhouse. That they still possessed more talent than any other team in the sport, regardless of who might no longer be available. That they were still good enough to win it all. That night, the Dodgers handily beat the Braves while on their way to winning 11 of their final 14 regular season games.
Roberts’ positivity has defined his managerial career, and this team might have needed it more than any other.
“He is an eternal optimist, the way he breathes that into our guys,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said. “This year we had more adversity and different guys and guys feeling the weight of that. And for them to continue to breathe that optimism, talk about how many good players we still have in here, I think was a meaningful part of us finishing strong and doing what we did in October.”
Roberts navigated the Ippei Mizuhara betting scandal, which prompted the firing of Shohei Ohtani’s longtime interpreter. He supported Freeman while his young son fought through a temporary bout of paralysis. On the field, he massaged a delicate situation around another superstar, Betts, who transitioned from second base to shortstop and later had to accept a return to right field and a move out of the leadoff spot. He maneuvered through a jarring string of injuries — from Betts to Muncy, Yoshinobu Yamamoto to Glasnow, Treinen to Brusdar Graterol. And he got the Dodgers through October while routinely staging bullpen games.
“It’s gratifying,” Roberts said. “The players performed, and yeah, I put them in positions that I felt were the right positions and the decisions worked out. But a lot of it is the trust that my guys have in me. And that’s everything. I believe in them. And this is the first team that I felt really like the trust went both ways. And that regardless of whatever decision I made, they were going to support me 100 percent.”
The full buy-in this year, Roberts said, came because the likes of Freeman, Betts, Muncy and Hernandez “were my biggest supporters.”
“I just think that from there, everyone sort of really, really had full trust.”
Since Roberts took over for the 2016 season, the Dodgers have posted a .627 regular-season winning percentage — the all-time highest for any manager (minimum 250 games). That stretch included only one championship, captured amid the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. Leading the Dodgers to another, giving them their first full-season title since 1988, put him alongside Walter Alston and Tommy Lasorda as the only Dodgers managers to win multiple rings.
“It should mean everything to him,” Dodgers first-base coach Clayton McCullough said. “It should mean for all those that ever doubted, ever criticized, to never do it again — to trust in what this guy is doing.”
A championship is the culmination of every aspect of an organization. It was ownership that green-lit the massive financial commitments over the winter. It was the front office that made critical additions at midseason. It was the training staff that worked diligently to navigate Freeman through his string of injuries in October. It was the scouting department that spent weeks finding holes for the Dodgers to expose in the World Series. And it was the players who, in the midst of adversity, rallied together.
But Roberts’ fingerprints were everywhere.
“I’m proud of it,” Roberts said, his uniform soaked in champagne as he left the interview room inside an emptying Yankee Stadium after the World Series win. “Legacy is something that I’m proud of. I’m a baseball fan. I think I do right by the game. I love players; I think I do right by the players — players that play for me, players that compete against us. I think that my loyalty to the Dodgers, the fan base, the organization, are my priorities. To win another championship, I guess I’ll let people talk about my legacy. But I’m just very proud of this group of men.”
The 2025 MLB All-Star Home Run Derby is fast approaching — and the field is set.
Braves hometown hero Ronald Acuna Jr. became the first player to commit to the event, which will be held at Truist Park in Atlanta on July 14 (8 p.m. ET on ESPN). He was followed by MLB home run leader Cal Raleigh of the Seattle Mariners, James Wood of the Washington Nationals, Byron Buxton of the Minnesota Twins, Oneil Cruz of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Junior Caminero of the Tampa Bay Rays, Brent Rooker of the Athletics and Jazz Chisholm Jr. of the New York Yankees.
On Friday, however, Acuna was replaced by teammate Matt Olson.
With all the entrants announced, let’s break down their chances at taking home this year’s Derby prize.
Full All-Star Game coverage: How to watch, schedule, rosters, more
2025 home runs: 17 | Longest: 434 feet
Why he could win: Olson is a late replacement for Acuna as the home team’s representative at this year’s Derby. Apart from being the Braves’ first baseman, however, Olson also was born in Atlanta and grew up a Braves fan, giving him some extra motivation. The left-handed slugger led the majors in home runs in 2023 — his 54 round-trippers that season also set a franchise record — and he remains among the best in the game when it comes to exit velo and hard-hit rate.
Why he might not: The home-field advantage can also be a detriment if a player gets too hyped up in the first round. See Julio Rodriguez in Seattle in 2023, when he had a monster first round, with 41 home runs, but then tired out in the second round.
2025 home runs: 36 | Longest: 440 feet
Why he could win: It’s the season of Cal! The Mariners’ catcher is having one of the greatest slugging first halves in MLB history, as he’s been crushing mistakes all season . His easy raw power might be tailor-made for the Derby — he ranks in the 87th percentile in average exit velocity and delivers the ball, on average, at the optimal home run launch angle of 23 degrees. His calm demeanor might also be perfect for the contest as he won’t get too amped up.
Why he might not: He’s a catcher — and one who has carried a heavy workload, playing in all but one game this season. This contest is as much about stamina as anything, and whether Raleigh can carry his power through three rounds would be a concern. No catcher has ever won the Derby, with only Ivan Rodriguez back in 2005 even reaching the finals.
2025 home runs: 24 | Longest: 451 feet
Why he could win: He’s big, he’s strong, he’s young, he’s awesome, he might or might not be able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. This is the perfect opportunity for Wood to show his talent on the national stage, and he wouldn’t be the first young player to star in the Derby. He ranks in the 97th percentile in average exit velocity and 99th percentile in hard-hit rate, so he can still muscle the ball out in BP even if he slightly mishits it. His long arms might be viewed as a detriment, but remember the similarly tall Aaron Judge won in 2017.
Why he might not: His natural swing isn’t a pure uppercut — he has a pretty low average launch angle of just 6.2 degrees — so we’ll see how that plays in a rapid-fire session. In real games, his power is primarily to the opposite field, but in a Home Run Derby you can get more cheapies pulling the ball down the line.
2025 home runs: 20 | Longest: 479 feet
Why he could win: Buxton’s raw power remains as impressive as nearly any hitter in the game. He crushed a 479-foot home run earlier this season and has four others of at least 425 feet. Indeed, his “no doubter” percentage — home runs that would be out of all 30 parks based on distance — is 75%, the highest in the majors among players with more than a dozen home runs. His bat speed ranks in the 89th percentile. In other words, two tools that could translate to a BP lightning show.
Why he might not: Buxton is 31 and the Home Run Derby feels a little more like a younger man’s competition. Teoscar Hernandez did win last year at age 31, but before that, the last winner older than 29 was David Ortiz in 2010, and that was under much different rules than are used now.
2025 home runs: 16 | Longest: 463 feet
Why he could win: If you drew up a short list of players everyone wants to see in the Home Run Derby, Cruz would be near the top. He has the hardest-hit ball of the 2025 season, and the hardest ever tracked by Statcast, a 432-foot missile of a home run with an exit velocity of 122.9 mph. He also crushed a 463-foot home run in Anaheim that soared way beyond the trees in center field. With his elite bat speed — 100th percentile — Cruz has the ability to awe the crowd with a potentially all-time performance.
Why he might not: Like all first-time contestants, can he stay within himself and not get too caught up in the moment? He has a long swing, which will result in some huge blasts, but might not be the most efficient for a contest like this one, where the more swings a hitter can get in before the clock expires, the better.
2025 home runs: 23 | Longest: 425 feet
Why he could win: Although Caminero was one of the most hyped prospects entering 2024, everyone kind of forgot about him heading into this season since he didn’t immediately rip apart the majors as a rookie. In his first full season, however, he has showed off his big-time raw power — giving him a chance to become just the third player to reach 40 home runs in his age-21 season. He has perhaps the quickest bat in the majors, ranking in the 100th percentile in bat speed, and his top exit velocity ranks in the top 15. That could translate to a barrage of home runs.
Why he might not: In game action, Caminero does hit the ball on the ground quite often — in fact, he’s on pace to break Jim Rice’s record for double plays grounded into in a season. If he gets out of rhythm, that could lead to a lot of low line drives during the Derby instead of fly balls that clear the fences.
2025 home runs: 19 | Longest: 440 feet
Why he could win: The Athletics slugger has been one of the top power hitters in the majors for three seasons now and is on his way to a third straight 30-homer season. Rooker has plus bat speed and raw power, but his biggest strength is an optimal average launch angle (19 degrees in 2024, 15 degrees this season) that translates to home runs in game action. That natural swing could be picture perfect for the Home Run Derby. He also wasn’t shy about saying he wanted to participate — and maybe that bodes well for his chances.
Why he might not: Rooker might not have quite the same raw power as some of the other competitors, as he has just one home run longer than 425 feet in 2025. But that’s a little nitpicky, as 11 of his home runs have still gone 400-plus feet. He competed in the college home run derby in Omaha while at Mississippi State in 2016 and finished fourth.
2025 home runs: 17 | Longest: 442 feet
Why he could win: Chisholm might not be the most obvious name to participate, given his career high of 24 home runs, but he has belted 17 already in 2025 in his first 61 games after missing some time with an injury. He ranks among the MLB leaders in a couple of home run-related categories, ranking in the 96th percentile in expected slugging percentage and 98th percentile in barrel rate. His raw power might not match that of the other participants, but he’s a dead-pull hitter who has increased his launch angle this season, which might translate well to the Derby, even if he won’t be the guy hitting the longest home runs.
Why he might not: Most of the guys who have won this have been big, powerful sluggers. Chisholm is listed at 5-foot-11, 184 pounds, and you have to go back to Miguel Tejada in 2004 to find the last player under 6 foot to win.
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