Dave Roberts doesn’t take his chance.
But he has an idea about where his 2026 Dodgers team is headed.
In his ten years as manager of the Dodgers, the pressure on Roberts’ club has always been the same: World Series or bankruptcy.
However, the reasons why are constantly changing: End a decades-long title drought for the franchise. Validate a pandemic-altered 2020 championship with another. Erase a maddening pattern of October disappointment. Become the first repeat champion in a quarter century and build a dynasty more than a decade in the making.
This year, the historic stakes facing the Dodgers will only increase.
They will attempt to complete just the third World Series three-peat in the MLB expansion era (since 1961). They will look to burnish their bid as one of the best teams of all time. And they will do it against the backdrop of persistent fear surrounding the sport, with their dominance pushing baseball (reasonably or not) into an existential crisis over competitive balance and financial equality.
“It’s kind of who we are,” Roberts said. “That is the expectation.”
That’s why Roberts, when recently discussing the upcoming season with The California Post, didn’t bother to temper such expectations or warn of the obstacles that could lie in his team’s path.
Instead, he reflected on historical comparisons between his current group and the New York Yankees of the late 1990s, baseball’s most recent three-peat champions: “I think it’s a good debate,” he said, later adding, “I think three [World Series] in a row would certainly make our case stronger.”
He embraced the increased external pressure on his club: “If you say that a championship is the only thing we expect, and that we are going to win this year, then you have to realize that bar. And I think that is a good thing.”
And when asked if that meant he wanted to guarantee a third ring in a row, he chuckled and smiled confidently.
“That’s the plan,” he said. “That’s the plan.”
Of course, on paper, the Dodgers’ plans for 2026 once again seem impenetrable.
They return nearly the entire 2025 lineup, adding four-time All-Star and top free-agent outfielder Kyle Tucker on a $240 million contract last week for good measure.
They bring back virtually every member of last year’s pitching staff, except the now-retired Clayton Kershaw, and bolstered their shaky bullpen by signing top free-agent closer Edwin Díaz to a $69 million deal last month.
Oh, and they’ll also have Shohei Ohtani available as a full-time two-way player for the first time in his Dodgers career.
It should come as no surprise that the Dodgers are already prohibitive title favorites according to both bookmakers (their World Series odds are three times smaller than those of the next closest contender) and analytical projections (they are a distant leader in Fangraphs’ team WAR projections, nearly seven wins ahead of any other club).
“The team that these guys have put together and put together, to provide a great product for the fan base in town, to go out and compete for a championship, speaks for itself,” Tucker said at his introductory press conference last week, citing the Dodgers’ status as one of his top appeals to come to Los Angeles. “I think it’s very special. You don’t actually experience that very often.”
On the other hand, it’s not often that teams are faced with the uniquely challenging circumstances the Dodgers will face next season.
Over the past two years, the club has played a total of 33 postseason games, putting a heavy burden on their aging lineup.
“That’s an extra month to a month and a half where you don’t get to rest and recover and go above and beyond what you normally do,” third baseman Max Muncy said during last year’s championship tour. “One post-season game is the equivalent of playing three extra-inning games, all at once. The stress – mentally, physically and emotionally – is just on a whole different level.”
Last October, the Dodgers also had to push their pitching staff (and especially the starting rotation) to a point that often increased injury risk for the following season.
“It’s something we definitely have to take into account,” president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said during the Winter Meetings.
Team officials aren’t worried about motivation or complacency, not after one player after another took the microphone at last November’s World Series parade and predicted their goal for three-peat glory.
“I’m ready to buy another ring next year,” Ohtani said at the time.
“It’s time to fill the hand completely, baby,” echoed Mookie Betts, who is going for his fifth career World Series championship.
But difficulties will nevertheless arise in a way that will force the Dodgers to be strategic with their roster management (the club plans to be even more cautious than usual with pitchers’ workloads, and schedule more days off for their veteran hitters) and navigate the daily mental grind of a 162-game marathon.
“I think the most taxing part of it, even with the pitchers, is the mind and the emotions,” Roberts said. “If you even look at last year, the intensity wasn’t there all year round. It’s just hard to do that, especially coming off two world championships.”
That, however, is why Roberts doesn’t want to shy away from pressure, expectations, or historical significance. He’d rather his team embrace it, use it as fuel and let it solidify an organizational culture that has already taken them to the mountaintop of the sport – and to the abyss of historic triumph.
“I think it matters [the players] and myself and the coaches to keep that incentive to be a team that wins three in a row. “I have enough confidence in our players that when I talk about stuff like that, they talk about stuff like that, we’re not going to run away from it… I think our guys can really understand that and manage that, and that comes with experience.”
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