{"id":650989,"date":"2026-03-29T18:48:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T18:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/650989\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T18:48:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T18:48:15","slug":"dodgers-manager-dave-roberts-was-blindsided-by-sons-decision-to-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/650989\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was blindsided by son&#8217;s decision to coach"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Cole Roberts enters a new phase in his baseball career this week as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/sports\/mlb\/son-of-dodgers-manager-dave-roberts-retires-to-follow-in-fathers-footsteps-11454428\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">bench coach of the West Michigan Whitecaps<\/a>, the Detroit Tigers\u2019 advanced Class-A affiliate.<\/p>\n<p>Roberts\u2019 father, Dave, has managed the last two World Series champions as the Los Angeles Dodgers\u2019 bench boss. Cole, 25, is looking to follow in the footsteps of his father \u2014 but was deliberate about carving his own path.<\/p>\n<p>MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebiglead.com\/who-has-the-highest-opening-day-payroll-in-mlb-not-the-dodgers\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Who has the highest Opening Day payroll in MLB? Not the Dodgers<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Dave Roberts told The Big Lead that his son\u2019s new job pursuit caught him by surprise.<\/p>\n<p>The Dodgers\u2019 manager said \u201cI honestly didn\u2019t know that\u201d Cole Roberts wanted to follow in his footsteps. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt happened organically, and I\u2019m very proud of him that he\u2019s finishing his playing career and wants to be a coach,\u201d Dave Roberts said. \u201cI\u2019m excited and I think he\u2019s going to be a great coach and a future major league manager, but honestly I didn\u2019t know until he took that job.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Roberts said his son didn\u2019t ask for any interview tips, or his thoughts on the job for which he applied. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut I will say that once he went through the interview he said that \u2018I found myself sounding like you talking to the executives,\u2019 which is interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Dodgers swept the Arizona Diamondbacks in their first regular season series of 2026, extending Dave Roberts\u2019 record for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/managers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">highest winning percentage<\/a> of any manager in National League history.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebiglead.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Enjoy free coverage of the top news &amp; trending stories on The Big Lead <\/a>\u2014<\/p>\n<p>MARCH MADNESS: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebiglead.com\/2026-sweet-16-tv-schedule-gate-times-dates-for-ncaa-tournament\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2026 Sweet 16 TV schedule, game times &amp; dates for NCAA Tournament<\/a><\/p>\n<p>MLB: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebiglead.com\/who-has-the-highest-opening-day-payroll-in-mlb-not-the-dodgers\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Who has the highest Opening Day payroll in MLB? Not the Dodgers<\/a><\/p>\n<p>NFL: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebiglead.com\/raiders-ashton-jeanty-weighs-in-fernando-mendoza-ty-simpson-debate\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Raiders\u2019 Ashton Jeanty weighs in on Fernando Mendoza-Ty Simpson debate<\/a><\/p>\n<p>SPORTS MEDIA: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebiglead.com\/2026-mlb-opening-day-tv-schedule-full-list-of-games\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2026 MLB Opening Day TV schedule, full list of games<\/a><\/p>\n<p>ENTERTAINMENT: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebiglead.com\/2026-sports-emmy-awards-nominees-full-list-announced\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2026 Sports Emmy Awards nominees, full list announced<\/a><\/p>\n<p>VIRAL: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebiglead.com\/best-most-outrageous-mlb-ballpark-foods-2026-season\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Best &amp; most outrageous MLB ballpark foods for 2026 season<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cole Roberts enters a new phase in his baseball career this week as the bench coach of the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":650990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2386],"tags":[5,147,53,2583,57,4,594],"class_list":{"0":"post-650989","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-tigers","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-detroit","10":"tag-detroit-tigers","11":"tag-detroittigers","12":"tag-los-angeles-dodgers","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-tigers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116313961520861051","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=650989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/650990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}