MLB WORLD SERIES: YANKEES VS DODGERS

October 29, 2024

Dave Roberts

Yankee Stadium

Los Angeles Dodgers

Pregame 4 Press Conference

Q. What is your level of anxiety and/or anxiousness as you're so close but still so far away?

DAVE ROBERTS: Definitely not anxiety. I think excited to get the game going. Guys have a good look, great preparation. Yeah, I like where we're at. So excited to get going.

Q. I believe it was the NLCS that you said you believe in this group of guys more so than any one you've managed before. With that feeling and these two storied franchises going head to head, having that 3-0 lead, what would it mean today to sweep?

DAVE ROBERTS: Yeah, it would be historic for our franchise to win another World Series, certainly against a great organization as the Yankees. Just excited for our players, our fans.

Like I said, I believe in this group, I love this group, and we've got to keep playing good baseball.

Q. Just a minor change to the bottom half of the lineup with Kiké moving up. What was the thought process there?

DAVE ROBERTS: I just feel that I like Kiké against Gil. He's obviously taken really good at-bats. So just flip-flopping those two, I felt good about it.

Q. With Ben Casparius, I know you talked a lot about him and not knowing too much early in the year, and obviously the impact he's made since being called up. But for him to be in a position in the World Series starting this game, what have you learned about him in the postseason and how he's handled this stage?

DAVE ROBERTS: I think Ben's handled it really well. He's a good kid. He's a good competitor, raised well, Connecticut kid. I just think that the guys have done a great job of embracing him and making him feel accepted.

I like the variance play as far as those guys don't know much about him. He's got good stuff. I just think he's going to perform well. He's not going to get too overwhelmed. It's a great opportunity, something he'll remember forever.

I've sort of left him alone because I don't need to add to his, as Jim asked, anxiety. He might have a little anxiety, but yeah.

Q. 27 outs from winning a world title. Your guys' mantra all season long has been just the next game. Has it been difficult, though, to preach just the next game when the 27 outs are the whole thing?

DAVE ROBERTS: Actually, it's this game that I preach. So that's still in line with our mantra, our messaging. No one's thinking about tomorrow, potential tomorrow. We're thinking about tonight's game and getting, as you said, 27 outs. I feel good about the focus.

We're focused on playing good baseball. Like I said last night, there's some things we need to do better and clean up, and I think that they'll be cleaned up tonight.

Q. Dave, I know you save speeches or messages for certain moments. Did you feel the need to send one to the team today?

DAVE ROBERTS: No, I didn't. I left those guys -- they're doing just fine by themselves right now.

Q. How have you seen the Dodgers evolve since you've been here? They've always been good, but how have things changed -- I remember years when it was a lot of platoons, and now it's more maybe superstars. How have you seen things change philosophically in your years here?

DAVE ROBERTS: I think I was at the beginning part of Andrew's tenure. He was there a year or two before me. So I think that it's obviously his influence, his impact on the data, a big kind of support group on R&D. So that's one part of it.

Yeah, I think that early on you have young players not making money, the platoon made sense. Now you've got a guy like Teoscar Hernandez that plays every day.

I just think collectively we ultimately felt that to win 11 games in October, having more guys that can be in the lineup consistently gives you a better chance versus in a vacuum a platoon.

But I will say in 2020 I think we had three platoons, and it worked out pretty well for us. So it's kind of evolved. You never nail it, but every year is different. It also helps when you've got three of the best players on the planet on your team too.

Q. How many times have you tried to figure out how to unlock playoff Kiké during the regular season?

DAVE ROBERTS: Yeah, I've tried and failed many times over. I'm just resolved to playoff Kiké. But you know what, he works hard. He's a good teammate. Yeah, I just think that there's more in there in the regular season, but there's just not many that perform like he does in the postseason.

Q. Is it just the atmosphere, what's at stake? Is that what gets him going?

DAVE ROBERTS: I think all of them like that. I think Walker spoke to it too, where he just gets up for the postseason. That's just how some guys are wired. But it's better than running from it.

Q. With so much focus on the stars on your roster understandably, when you look at how your team's been able to navigate through all of the injuries to get to the point you are now, how much of that is a testament to the way the organization always works the entire 40-man roster and not just focused on that top part?

DAVE ROBERTS: That's what it is. I think obviously we have a culture here at the Big League level, but the scouting and player development, I just think is second to none. Who would have thought that Ben Casparius or Landon Knack is going to be pitching in Game 4 at Yankees Stadium. You get a guy like Honeywell off waivers and some of these young players.

And obviously the deadline acquisitions we have made have been enormous with those three guys, so tapping into the depth. You never foresee a season like we've gone through, but you've still got guys that are upright and are talented, and we've taken a hit. So it's an organizational kind of thing. But the front office, Andrew is brilliant.

Q. Looking back with this entire regular season, how much do you think playing in the National League West with the National League West being so strong this year has helped you guys through the postseason?

DAVE ROBERTS: It's helped us a lot. I still believe Arizona, the Padres are two of the better teams in all of baseball, and we got to see a lot of them. Having to go through the Padres in that DS was just kind of a grind.

So I certainly felt it prepared us for the rest of this postseason, absolutely.

Q. How's Ohtani doing? Have you checked in on him?

DAVE ROBERTS: I haven't seen Shohei, so I'm assuming he's fine, yes. No news is good news.

Q. You guys obviously have a very star-oriented lineup, and star-oriented lineups tend to be power-oriented lineups. How hard, difficult, special is it to have a lineup that has so much power but also can go first to third, catch the ball, is fundamentally sound?

DAVE ROBERTS: It's everything. I think that's kind of the separator with our ballplayers. I talk a lot about talent and also intelligence, and I say intelligence because you still have to value swinging at strikes and taking balls. The value of taking a walk if given to you. So our guys can slug, but they can do that.

Freddie on one leg to be able to go first to third to create a situational opportunity. Teo to then get better at his defense and value defense, and you can even argue more than his hitting right now. So those things are huge.

Mookie gets down two strikes yesterday and finds a way to fist a ball or cue a ball to right field. Tommy gets a great break on the ball to score without a throw. Those are things that are separators for our ball club, yeah.

Q. Just by virtue of winning the first three games, you've obviously had to use your bullpen going into this bullpen game a little more than the last couple of rounds. Does that mean with Ben and maybe Langdon you might need a little more length out of them in this one than in the past?

DAVE ROBERTS: Absolutely. Everyone's available tonight, but it's going to kind of be up to me depending on the game score, where they're at with their starting pitcher, where they're at with their pen, when I decide to deploy other guys. Because every guy will be with a cost going forward so I'd better make sure it's in the right spot.

To answer your question, sure, we're going to need length out of those two guys. I'm not sure what that means exactly, but we're all going to watch together.

Q. Was Treinen okay last night, or were you staying away from him?

DAVE ROBERTS: Staying away from him. He wasn't down. No one's going to be down in the World Series. I was clearly staying away from him. But if we didn't get Gleyber right there, he was going to get Soto.

Q. As you guys go towards the trade deadline, start talking about ideas. When did the magnitude of getting Tommy and Shohei in the same trade and also getting Flaherty come up? Also, how impactful has having them been for you guys this October?

DAVE ROBERTS: It's been obviously hugely impactful. Given where we were at with starting pitching, it was a priority. Jack is a local guy. We knew a lot about the makeup. So we just felt that -- we're all grateful that it kind of came to pass.

Tommy is somebody that I think that we've coveted for years and just kind of being that guy that can kind of do anything. Versatile player, the bat to ball, the heady player was certainly something that we are very excited that could happen.

Then speaking about the pen, just having a neutral guy with power, he's just different than what we have. It was something that we just felt that -- if we could acquire a guy like Kopech, we just felt there was some low-hanging fruit in our environment that we could get him to be even better.

Everything's been to the hundredth percentile. That's all the front office. I don't know where we'd be without those guys because those three guys have been huge.

Q. You guys have had quiet deadlines, like where you get the Hugh Darvishes of the world at the deadline. Has this been the most cohesive group that you have been able to add impactful guys in terms of October and what they were all individually able to bring?

DAVE ROBERTS: Yeah, and I appreciate being in the clubhouse as far as you're not doing something just to do something and discounting what we have as far as the culture. Everything we did at the deadline made sense, it really made sense. I think with that, the players responded the way they should have and accepted all three of those players.

Q. Before I ask my question, I don't know if you heard, but UCLA is getting its ballpark back next year.

DAVE ROBERTS: Oh, yeah, that's great.

Q. The judge approved it through July 4th of '25.

DAVE ROBERTS: Thanks for sharing, Jim. That's great news. Good for the kids. That's great.

Q. If you had to boil down your philosophy on dealing with players and running a clubhouse and what have you, how does that work? How do you handle that?

DAVE ROBERTS: Oh, gosh, Jim (laughter).

I think it's individual based. I think that -- you know, I just try to be sensitive to kind of where they're at in the moment personally, trying to get the best out of them. I communicate with each guy differently, so there's a lot of conversations.

But I think the ultimate goal has got to be about our ball club. I just try to make it about them, not about me and about the Dodgers. But, yeah, we have a lot of hard conversations, fun conversations. That's probably the crux.

Q. Do those conversations change at all at this time of year when you get to the postseason?

DAVE ROBERTS: Yeah, they do because I feel some players are in a good place. Some players, I think I need more out of. Some people are starting to feel a little bit of the anxiety. Some people might need a little bit of reassurance, encouragement. So I think so, yeah.

Q. I'll piggy-back off of that a tiny bit. Back here in this series in June at Yankee Stadium, Aaron Judge absolutely torched you guys even though you did win that series. He hasn't looked like the same guy in this series or even in the postseason. Why do you think that is? Is it as simple as the way you guys are attacking him?

DAVE ROBERTS: I'm not sure. He's a great player. We're making some good pitches. Hope he takes another oh-fer.

He's a great player. I have so much respect for Aaron. There's probably a little bit of maybe trying too hard right now.

Q. What has Freddie Freeman brought to the clubhouse culture in his few years with you guys?

DAVE ROBERTS: He's brought the desire. He's got gratitude, the desire to play every day, to know that this is a job and your job is to play and you've got to maximize your value. And that's by playing. He's tough. He's about the team.

If I had one player, I just -- I've said it before, if you -- all encompassing, he's my favorite player to be around as far as what he does for the culture, the organization, the team.

Q. Just what is it about the Dodgers culture that allows some of these superstars to integrate? There's some locker rooms where having three, four, five superstars like that might not work, but it seems to work for you guys and it has worked for you guys in the past. What is it about the Dodgers culture?

DAVE ROBERTS: It's about getting the right players, the right people. Talent is a lot, but it's not everything. You still have to be cohesive. I just think we do a great job of getting the right players in our clubhouse.

Q. Just an extension on the Freddie to add Mookie to this --

DAVE ROBERTS: Yeah. Mookie's on my Mt. Rushmore as well.

Q. I'm sure. It would seem to me that the acquisition of those guys and the fact that one was a trade and sign and the other was a sign, had more impact on not only your team but on Major League Baseball in general than anything else. Both Boston and Atlanta really haven't been the same team since they didn't re-sign those players. Basically, it's all shifted to you. What's your thinking about the impact those guys have had on everything you've done?

DAVE ROBERTS: I think that you don't commit to players like that if you don't feel they can make people around them better, make the organization better for the future, for the present and the future. So that was the best with both those players, and we certainly have been the beneficiaries.

The impact that Freddie has had on our young players in the system and guys that watch him every day, what Mookie's had on our guys and a guy that can go from right field to second base to right field to shortstop back to right field. All that stuff matters. That's sort of the commitment, the bet when you commit to guys for a long time.

Q. And then when you look at upper management here and what Guggenheim and Mark and those people do for this, you're not talking about teams like Boston and Atlanta that couldn't afford to keep those players. What is it about your organization that keeps adding these guys to try to make this team better?

DAVE ROBERTS: Well, Mark is very competitive. I know Andrew is very competitive. Us on the field are very competitive.

So I think that with that, they're going to do everything they can to give us the best ball club we can to win a championship every year. In my nine years, they've done that.