‘Put it on record’: Dave Roberts guarantees a Dodgers World Series win in 2022
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Dave Roberts is calling his shot.
The Dodgers are winning the 2022 World Series.
That’s what the club’s manager predicted Thursday anyway, making a championship guarantee during an appearance on the “Dan Patrick Show” before later doubling down to reporters following the Dodgers’ 6-6 spring training tie against the Colorado Rockies.
“I believe in this organization,” he said. “I believe we’re going to put ourselves in that position. And we gotta finish it this year.”
Roberts first made his claim near the end of a 15-minute interview with Patrick on Thursday morning, when the seventh-year manager was asked an open-ended question: “The Dodgers will win the World Series if …”
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Roberts briefly paused, then answered: “We play a full season and there is a postseason.”
Patrick jumped in, trying to clarify: “Wait …”
Roberts continued, emphatically: “We are winning the World Series in 2022. But I know where you’re going with that. We are winning the World Series this year. Put it on record.”
Roberts reiterated his stance when Patrick asked again.
“We are winning the World Series,” Roberts said. “That’s our focus. That’s our goal.”
Roberts then circled back on Patrick’s original question, saying: “We are winning the World Series if our starting staff stays healthy. I know that’s vague. That’s my answer. You can dig in a little bit on that, but I think it’s about our starting pitching, keeping our guys healthy.”
Later, Patrick asked one more time: “So you’re guaranteeing that you’re going to win the World Series this year?”
Roberts didn’t waver: “I’m putting it out there. I’m putting it in the universe.”
Roberts stuck to the declaration following his team’s game at Salt River Fields, too, when he was asked once more if he was making a championship guarantee.
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“I am,” he said. “I’d be crazy not to.”
Managers aren’t usually so explicit in their prognostications this time of year, with rosters not yet even finalized and 162 games worth of unknown variables ahead.
The Dodgers have as good of chances as anyone. With the addition of Freddie Freeman, they have arguably the best lineup in the majors. And despite questions in their pitching staff — Roberts told Patrick he believes their rotation ranks “somewhere in the top 10” in the league and that opening day starter Walker Buehler should be included in the conversation as the sport’s best pitcher — they own the best World Series betting odds and highest World Series probability, according to Fangraphs.
But they were similar favorites last year, before the team suffered a rash of injuries down the stretch, cooled off at the plate during the playoffs and watched their pitching plans crumble in a six-game National League championship series loss to the Atlanta Braves.
Nonetheless, Roberts’ conviction never waned Thursday, setting himself up to be baseball’s version of Joe Namath and Nostradamus — or the team to fall short of the loftiest of expectations.
“I don’t care,” he said when it was suggested others in sports don’t like making such bold claims. “Everyone in this organization better believe that. People outside this organization that don’t believe it, I got no problem with it.”
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