Dodgers’ skipper reveals what’s needed to achieve three-peat immortality: ‘That’s the expectation’

Dave Roberts isn’t calling his shot.

But he has a belief about where his 2026 Dodgers team is headed.

In his 10 years as manager of the Dodgers, the pressure on Roberts’ club has always been the same: World Series or bust.

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The reasons why, however, have constantly shifted: End a decades-long title drought for the franchise. Validate a pandemic-altered 2020 championship with another. Erase a maddening pattern of October disappointments. Become the first repeat champion in a quarter-century, and cement a dynasty more than a decade in the making.

This year, the historical stakes facing the Dodgers will only heighten.

They will be attempting to complete only the third World Series three-peat in MLB’s expansion era (since 1961). They will be trying to burnish their bid as one of the best teams of all time. And they will do it against the backdrop of continued angst around the sport, with their run of dominance pushing baseball (fairly or not) into an existential crisis over competitive balance and financial parity.

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“It’s kind of who we are,” Roberts said. “That’s the expectation.”

Which is why, as Roberts discussed the upcoming season with The California Post recently, he didn’t bother tempering such expectations or cautioning about the obstacles that may lie in his team’s path.

Instead, he pondered historical comparisons between his current group and the late ‘90s New York Yankees, 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 amplified external pressure that has enveloped his club: “If you’re saying a championship is the only thing that we expect, and we’re gonna win this year, then you gotta realize that bar. And I think that’s a good thing.”

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And then, when asked if that meant he wanted to guarantee a third-straight ring, he chuckled and flashed a confident grin.

“That’s the plan,” he said. “That’s the plan.”

On paper, of course, the Dodgers’ 2026 plans once again look impenetrable.

They are returning almost the entirety of their 2025 lineup, and added four-time All-Star and top free-agent outfielder Kyle Tucker on a $240 million contract last week for good measure.

They are bringing back practically every member of last year’s pitching staff, save the now-retired Clayton Kershaw, and fortified their shaky bullpen by signing top free-agent closer Edwin Díaz to a $69 million deal last month.

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Oh, and they will have Shohei Ohtani available as a full-time, two-way player for the first time in his Dodgers career too.

To no surprise, the Dodgers are already prohibitive title favorites according to both bookmakers (their World Series odds are three times shorter than the next closest contender) and analytic projections (they are a distant leader in Fangraphs’ team WAR projections, almost seven wins clear of any other club).

“The team these guys put together and assembled, to give a great product for the fanbase in the city, to go out there and compete for a championship, kind of speaks for itself,” Tucker said at his introductory press conference last week, citing the Dodgers’ powerhouse status as one of his main appeals in coming to Los Angeles. “I think it’s very special. You don’t really get that very often.”

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Then again, it’s not often that teams face the uniquely challenging circumstances the Dodgers will have to navigate this coming season.

Over the last two years, the club has played a combined 33 postseason games, putting a burdensome tax on their aging lineup.

“That’s an extra month to a month and a half that you don’t get to rest and recover, and that you’re pushing beyond what you normally do,” third baseman Max Muncy said during last year’s championship trek. “One postseason game is the equivalent of playing three extra-inning games, all at one time. The stress — both mental, physical, emotional — it’s just on a whole ‘nother level.”

Last October, the Dodgers also had to push their pitching staff (and starting rotation, in particular) to a point that often heightens injury risk for the following season.

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“It’s something we definitely have to be mindful of,” president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said at the Winter Meetings.

Team officials aren’t worried about motivation or complacency, not after one player after another took the mic at last November’s World Series parade and forecasted their aim for three-peat glory.

“I’m ready to get another ring next year,” Ohtani said then.

“It’s time to fill the hand all the way up, baby,” echoed Mookie Betts, who will be going for his fifth career World Series championship.

But difficulties will present themselves, nonetheless, in ways that will force the Dodgers to be strategic with their roster management (the club is planning to be even more cautious than usual with pitchers’ workloads, and work in more off-days for their veteran hitters) and push through the daily mental grind of a 162-game marathon.

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“I think the most taxing part of it, even with the pitchers, is the mind, the emotions,” Roberts said. “If you look at even last year, you could see that the intensity wasn’t there all year. It’s just hard to manufacture that, certainly coming off two world championships.”

That, though, 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 steel an organizational culture that has already brought them to the mountaintop of the sport –– and the precipice of legacy-cemented three-peat triumph.

“I think it puts it on [the players] and myself and the coaches to keep that incentive to be a team that wins three in a row,” Roberts said. “I have enough trust with our players that when I talk about things like that, they talk about things like that, we’re not gonna run from it … I think our guys really can understand and manage that, and that comes with experience.”