‘I assist it’ – Orange County Register

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who will manage the National League All-Star team wherever the game is played this summer, said he supports MLB’s decision to pull that game out of Atlanta in response to the controversial Georgia state law changing election rules.

“I support it,” Roberts said Friday of the decision announced by MLB commissioner Rob Manfred. “Obviously, I’m not completely versed on everything but I do understand and my takeaway from the bill was essentially to suppress voting for people of color. With that, that’s something I fundamentally, intrinsically disagree with.

“For the commissioner to do his due diligence – inside of baseball, outside of baseball, players, front-office – and ultimately make a decision to remove the All-Star Game and the draft outside of the state of Georgia, I support. I also applaud the fact that we’re still planning on committing the dollars to the communities in the greater Atlanta area which I think is great because the fans are the ones that unfortunately are losing out. But I certainly support it.”

As part of the announcement Friday, Manfred said that MLB’s planned investment in Atlanta-area communities as part of the All-Star Legacy Projects will not change.

Roberts said he was part of Manfred’s due diligence.

“We just kind of had a conversation as far as trying to gather information,” Roberts said.

When the possibility of MLB pulling the All-Star Game out of Atlanta was raised last week, Roberts said he would “consider” not participating as manager of the NL team. He did not express that to the commissioner, Roberts said.

Roberts said he did not expect MLB to act as quickly as it did.

“I did not,” he said. “I think that Major League Baseball does a really good job of vetting and seeing all sides to ultimately make a decision. I applaud them for being proactive in this case.”

Roberts said he believes the decision by Manfred to take a stand on this issue will be “very impactful.”

“In a world now where people want and need to be heard – in this particular case, people of color – for Major League Baseball to listen and do something about it, be proactive, I think it just sets a tone that from Major League Baseball to the players we have to be in it together,” Roberts said. “It’s a great game. But for it to continue to flourish we have to be in it together and this is a huge step towards that.”

BIG MONEY

The Dodgers’ projected 2021 payroll of $234 million is not only the highest in baseball but no other team is within $30 million, according to the annual survey of Opening Day salaries published by USA Today on Friday.

The Dodgers’ payroll includes three of the top 10 highest-paid players in baseball – David Price ($32 million), Trevor Bauer ($31.3 million) and Clayton Kershaw ($31 million). Their combined salaries (though the Boston Red Sox are giving the Dodgers $16 million to pay half of Price’s salary) of $94.2 million is more than the payrolls of 11 teams.

Though payrolls for competitive-balance tax purposes are calculated slightly differently, the Dodgers will pay the luxury tax this year for the first time since 2017 and could trigger additional penalties like moving their first pick in the draft back 10 spots next year.

Nonetheless, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said this spring that ownership has applied no pressure to shed salaries despite losses of more than $100 million last season that triggered numerous layoffs throughout the organization.

“I think our primary focus is on doing everything we can to defend our title,” Friedman said. “Trade discussions, I’m sure, will take place during spring training but it’s not something that’s front of mind for us in terms of moving money. The moves and things that we’ve done the previous three years gave us a little bit more flexibility right now. I think from our standpoint we feel really good about the team we have in place.

“We know that there’s some added costs associated with it, which is not ideal, but it is a cost. But we feel like with where we are as a team we have that the reward kind of outweighs that.”

K’S FOR A CAUSE

Bauer has announced a season-long charity initiative through which he will donate $1,000 for every strikeout he records to local non-profit organizations.

Bauer’s charity – ‘Ks for a Cause’ – will donate to a different organization each month with an emphasis on groups that support STEM and youth programming throughout the greater Los Angeles area. ‘Ks for a Cause’ merchandise will also be available with proceeds going to the designated organizations.

For April, Bauer’s strikeouts will benefit ‘Think Together,’ a group that organizes early learning programs, afterschool programs, student support services, and school improvement efforts. Bauer’s donation will help fund afterschool STEM and robotics programming for middle school students in southeast Los Angeles.

During six full seasons from 2014 through 2019, Bauer averaged 192 strikeouts per season, topping out at 253 in 2019. During the shortened regular season in 2020, Bauer averaged a career-high 12.3 strikeouts per nine innings.