At age 53, Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts is at the pinnacle of the baseball world, and the last person most people would suspect would ever mull the question of retirement.

However, Roberts himself recently admitted that during the doldrums of losing in the playoffs to division rivals in 2022 and 2023, he at least considered the question.

“It was like, ‘What am I doing this for?’” Roberts told Jack Harris of the California Post. “I love the question, ‘What are you chasing?’ And I was there at home, (after) you lose, and you’re like, ‘What am I chasing?’ Am I chasing a championship? We already won one. Is that going to bring me joy and fulfillment? I didn’t have an answer.”

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – OCTOBER 11: Manager Dave Roberts #30 of the Los Angeles Dodgers smiles after a 5-3 win over the San Diego Padres in game one…

All of those thoughts have been put to rest, Roberts says, by the last two seasons of Dodgers dominance. Coming off the first back-to-back championships in Major League Baseball since the 2000 New York Yankees, and with a fresh four-year contract set to begin, Roberts says the end of his managerial career isn’t yet on the horizon.

“I’m not gonna say I’m going to manage for as long as Tommy (Lasorda) and Walt Alston,” Roberts told Harris, referring to two Dodgers greats who spent more than 20 years in the dugout. “But I don’t see myself going anywhere for a while.”

In his first 10 years at the helm of the Dodgers, Roberts has gone 944-475, a .621 winning percentage. Assuming the Dodgers get to 56 wins this season without completely collapsing, he’ll have the best winning percentage of all time among managers with at least 1,000 wins, a mark currently held by former Yankees manager Joe McCarthy at .615.

Once again, the Dodgers have dominated offseason discourse by signing a pair of superstar free agents, outfielder Kyle Tucker and closer Edwin Díaz. Those two will make Roberts’ nightly chores even more amenable in the coming season, but the only thing that matters to the skipper is winning ring No. 4 in Dodger blue.