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The Dodgers’ storied history has allowed many a manager to thrive. In the nearly 70 seasons since the franchise moved to Los Angeles, the Dodgers have had a losing record 13 times, the last coming in 2010. They have made the playoffs every year since 2013, and, with the best record in baseball this season, are primed to reach the postseason for a 14th straight year, tying the MLB record set by the Atlanta Braves from 1991-2005.
A lot of the Dodgers’ recent success has come under Dave Roberts, who on Tuesday night became the fourth manager in franchise history to reach 1,000 career victories. This fall, he will try to guide his team to its third consecutive World Series title, a feat last accomplished by the New York Yankees in 2000 under the tutelage of Joe Torre — who later managed the Dodgers for three seasons.
Here’s a look at how the 10 managers during the Dodgers’ time in Los Angeles have fared.
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Walter Alston
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Years as manager: 1954-1976
Record: 2,040-1,613, .558 win pct
Alston, who managed the team’s final four seasons in Brooklyn, is the team’s winningest manager and won four of the franchise’s nine World Series titles, the first coming in 1955. He won three more in Los Angeles in 1959, 1963 and 1965 while also guiding them to the World Series in 1966 and 1974. When he won his 2,000th career game in 1976, Alston was only the fifth manager in MLB history to reach that mark. (There are 13 now.)
A 1983 Baseball Hall of Fame inductee and six-time NL manager of the year, Alston also invited radio broadcaster Anita Martini into the clubhouse in 1974 after the Dodgers beat the Astros in Houston to clinch the NL West title — the first time a female journalist had been allowed in any professional sports locker room.
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Tommy Lasorda
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Years as manager: 1976-1996
Record: 1,599-1,439, .526 win pct
After serving as the team’s third base coach for four seasons, Lasorda took over as manager late in the 1976 season when Alston announced his retirement. He led the Dodgers to the National League pennant in his first two full seasons, losing both times to the Yankees in the World Series. He won his first World Series in 1981, knocking off the Yankees, and rallied his team to a surprise title in 1988 in which the Dodgers beat the heavily favored Athletics. Lasorda was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1997, his first year of eligibility.
A fiery and vibrant presence who spent 71 years with the Dodgers, Lasorda managed nine players who won the NL rookie of the year award. The Dodgers also opened the Japanese player pipeline on his watch. Hideo Nomo, the first Japanese big leaguer to permanently relocate to the U.S., joined the Dodgers in 1995. Three decades later, the team features Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto on its star-studded roster.
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Bill Russell
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Years as manager: 1996-1998
Record: 173-149, .537 win pct
A stalwart at shortstop for most of his 18 seasons with the Dodgers, Russell stepped in after Lasorda suffered a heart attack in June 1996 and stayed on when Lasorda resigned a month later due to health concerns. Russell was only the third Dodgers skipper in 43 seasons when he took over on an interim basis for the rest of the 1996 season. He guided the team to a wild-card berth — the team’s last postseason appearance until 2004 — and became the full-time manager after the season.
During his tenure, ownership of the team shifted from the O’Malley family to Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Entertainment Group, which completed the purchase of the Dodgers in March 1998. After winning 88 games and finishing second in the NL West in his only full season at the helm in 1997, Russell was fired 74 games into the 1998 season as part of a housecleaning that included the removal of general manager Fred Claire.
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Glenn Hoffman
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Years as manager: 1998
Record: 47-41, .534 win pct
Hoffman served as a stopgap measure more than a permanent replacement in his short tenure with the team. After nine years playing in the majors, Hoffman took up coaching in the Dodgers’ minor league farm system, splitting time between managing and coordinating field instruction for player development. However, when the Dodgers needed someone to take over for Russell in late June, Hoffman stepped up from his position managing the Dukes.
The skipper led the team to a third-place finish in the NL West, 15 games behind the eventual league champion San Diego Padres. After Davey Johnson took over before the 1999 season, Hoffman remained with the team as third-base coach for seven seasons.
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Davey Johnson
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Years as manager: 1999-2000
Record: 163-161, .503 win pct
Johnson’s managerial history before the Dodgers was chaotic and full of front-office disputes. And, despite having won the AL manager of the year award in 1997, it took two years for another team to take a chance on him.
While in L.A., Johnson did win his 1,000th game, doing so in May 1999. But his tenure did not live up to expectations, even with a roster that included Hall of Famer Adrián Beltré, Kevin Brown and Gary Sheffield. Johnson’s only losing full season of his career was in 1999, finishing third in the NL West. The Dodgers performed better the next year, but Johnson wouldn’t return.
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Jim Tracy
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Years as manager: 2001-2005
Record: 427-383, .527 win pct
Tracy had been a minor league manager and served as a bench coach with the Montreal Expos under Felipe Alou and with the Dodgers under Johnson. Tracy posted four winning seasons, including two with more than 90 wins, and guided the Dodgers to the NL West title and a playoff appearance in 2004. The St. Louis Cardinals knocked out the Dodgers in four games in the NL Division Series in what was the team’s first postseason action since 1996.
The bottom fell out in 2005 as the team finished 71-91, the second-worst mark since the team moved from Brooklyn, with a roster revamped by general manager Paul DePodesta — who was hired after the 2003 season a few weeks after Boston real estate developer Frank McCourt purchased the team. Tracy had approached the team about a contract extension late in the 2005 season, a bold request considering the team’s record. When Tracy was let go at the end of the season, the team called it a “mutual parting of ways.” Less than four weeks later, DePodesta was fired for not adequately replacing Tracy.
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Grady Little
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Years as manager: 2006-2007
Record: 170-154, .525 win pct
Little came to the Dodgers with a reputation that preceded him. The manager — the most recent soul tortured by the Curse of the Bambino — gave Pedro Martínez the nod to continue in the eighth inning of Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS matchup between the Red Sox and the Yankees, a game New York won in extra-inning, walk-off fashion.
After spending two years in the Chicago Cubs organization as a consultant and scout, Little restarted his managerial career with the Dodgers, reuniting with some of his former players, including Nomar Garciaparra and Derek Lowe. The Dodgers clinched a wild-card berth in 2006 but were swept by the Mets in the NLDS before muddling through an injury-plagued season and missing the playoffs in 2007. Little’s lack of response to a possible return that offseason resulted in general manager Ned Colletti pursuing other options.
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Joe Torre
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Years as manager: 2008-2010
Record: 259-227, .533 win pct
Torre packed his suitcases for the West Coast rather than taking a pay cut with the Yankees, bringing future manager Don Mattingly with him. The winning started soon after the move. The Dodgers returned to the playoffs in 2008 and won a postseason series for the first time since 1988.
Though, it did not go without controversy. Manny Ramirez tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2009, leading to a 50-game suspension. And while other players — namely Clayton Kershaw — rose through the ranks on his watch, Torre’s one issue remained consistent: He couldn’t beat the Phillies. Twice, the Dodgers were downed by Philadelphia in the NLCS. After an 80-82 season in 2010, Torre passed on skipper duties to Mattingly.
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Don Mattingly
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Years as manager: 2011-2015
Record: 446-363, .551 win pct
Mattingly came on board during a tumultuous time in the franchise’s history as the Dodgers filed for bankruptcy protection in June 2011 in a bid by McCourt to preserve his ownership. (He eventually agreed to sell the team, with the Guggenheim ownership group taking over in 2012.)
After two winning seasons, Mattingly was in the hot seat with the Dodgers in last place early in the 2013 campaign. But the Dodgers caught fire midseason and won the NL West and knocked out the Atlanta Braves in the NLDS before losing to the St. Louis Cardinals in the NLCS. Mattingly called out the team’s front office, asking for a multiyear contract in exchange for returning in 2014, which he eventually got. But the Dodgers couldn’t get past the NLDS in 2014 and 2015, and the team parted ways with Mattingly with one year left on his deal.
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Dave Roberts
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Years as manager: 2016-present
Record: 1,000-605, .623 win pct
The son of an African American father and Japanese mother, Roberts is the first minority manager in Dodgers history. After guiding the Dodgers to the NLCS in 2016, he became the first manager of Asian heritage to go to the World Series in 2017 and the first to win when the Dodgers captured the team’s first championship in 32 years in 2020.
Before Roberts led the team to back-to-back World Series championships, he earned a four-year contract extension worth a record $8.1 million annually. In addition to the three World Series titles, the Dodgers have won five NL pennants and nine division titles under Roberts. To further underscore the consistent winning the Dodgers have achieved with him: The Dodgers had two 100-win campaigns in their first 58 seasons in Los Angeles. Since Roberts took over in 2016, the franchise has had five.