Dave Roberts takes over as Los Angeles Dodgers manager

The Los Angeles Dodgers have reportedly hired former player Dave Roberts as the first minority manager in franchise history.

The Los Angeles Dodgers will hire Dave Roberts as their manager, a person familiar with the decision told the Associated Press.

Roberts, 43, the son of an African-American former Marine and Japanese-American mother, will be formally introduced at an unveiling on December 1, the Dodgers said. He most recently was bench coach of the San Diego Padres since 2011.

Stealing a total of 109 bases, Roberts is UCLA’s all-time leader in career steals. So Mattingly interviewed and came to terms with the Miami Marlins in an unusually brief period after Mattingly and the Dodgers split, and the Dodgers chose not to make a big thing over the unusually brief period required for the Marlins and Mattingly to come together.

While there was always a chance that passing over Roberts for Pat Murphy as Black’s interim replacement was meant to preserve Roberts’ candidacy for the full-time gig, A.J. Preller’s intent seemed clear from the get-go: He was cutting down the Bud Black coaching tree.

The Dodgers are dedicated to supporting a culture of winning baseball, providing a first-class, fan-friendly experience at Dodger Stadium, and building a strong partnership with the community.

He is inheriting baseball’s most expensive roster, after all, a team that has won three straight division titles but has fallen short of an NL pennant-let alone a Commissioner’s Trophy-each time.

Based on Nightengale’s note on Roberts’ interview, it’s safe to assume the new skipper is open to suggestions from Friedman and Los Angeles’ analytically inclined front office.

He’ll replace Don Mattingly and an inherit a team that’s averaged 93 wins over the past three years but has just one NLCS appearance and no titles. Roberts pinch-ran after Kevin Millar drew a leadoff walk from Mariano Rivera. He later scored a run that sent the game into extra innings. He becomes the fourth Dodgers manager to also play for the franchise, joining Tom Lasorda, Bill Russell and Glenn Hoffman. This photo was taken of Roberts when he was with the team in July of 2004.

Roberts was traded to the Cleveland Indians, who later flipped him to the Dodgers for two minor leaguers leading up to the 2002 season. The Dodgers were 26th in the majors in stolen bases last season and their roster, at the moment, doesn’t exactly suggest it will be fleet-footed in 2016.

Now, the Dodgers are hoping that Roberts can help the Dodgers out of their own World Series drought. In that time he has survived an episode of Hodgkins lymphona which he was diagnosed with in 2010.