Roberts knew he'd be deemed 'a puppet' when he took Dodgers job

Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts knew before he took over as the team's manager in 2016 that he might be entering a difficult situation, but he was willing to take a chance in order to manage one of the most prestigious franchises in baseball.

"It was from the very beginning when I took this job and they parted ways with Don Mattingly, and Andrew (Friedman) and Farhan (Zaidi) were running the baseball operations. From day one, whoever the manager was, was going to be deemed as a puppet," Roberts said on the Bleav in Dodgers podcast.

"So now it’s just something that I’ve just got to deal with. I know what’s real, what’s not real. But there’s a narrative that was built from the very beginning."

Roberts, who managed one game for the Padres in 2015 before taking the Dodgers gig after the franchise parted ways with Mattingly, said that due to the Dodgers' analytics-driven front office, every decision he makes - good or bad - is somehow linked to that.

"Whether I take a pitcher out because he's not doing well, it’s analytics ... whenever it goes bad, it's the analytics," Roberts explained. "When I do something that goes against the analytics, well he should have used analytics. You can't win and you can't play that game. I’m at peace with that."

Roberts' track record with the Dodgers speaks for itself. The team's won the National League West in each of his four seasons and been to the World Series twice.

Overall, Roberts is 393-256 with the Dodgers.