GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Dave Roberts and the Los Angeles Dodgers are in agreement on a four-year extension that will set a record for average annual value on a manager's contract, a source told ESPN on Monday.

The new deal, which runs from 2026 to 2029, will pay Roberts $32.4 million, carrying an $8.1 million average annual value that will narrowly edge out the yearly rate on Craig Counsell's five-year, $40 million contract with the Chicago Cubs. Roberts, 52, will manage the 2025 season under his current contract, which was entering its final year.

A new deal was considered a foregone conclusion after the Dodgers secured their second championship in five years last fall. Serious negotiations began sometime around February; significant progress was made last week; and an announcement could come before the Dodgers fly to Japan to begin their season March 18. The 2025 season will mark Roberts' 10th with the Dodgers.

"I can't talk so much about it, but I do think that there's finally some closure," Roberts said after Monday's Cactus League game. "I'm excited. Obviously this is the place I want to be. I'm sure I'll go into it more. Hopefully there's an announcement coming soon; I'm waiting. But this is the place I've always wanted to be. I just love what we're doing."

A cult hero in Boston for the stolen base that helped trigger an unprecedented comeback in the 2004 American League Championship Series, Roberts carved out a 10-year career as a major league outfielder, then spent five years on the San Diego Padres' coaching staff. The Dodgers hired Roberts to replace Don Mattingly in November 2015, making him the franchise's first minority manager.

Since then, Roberts has guided the Dodgers to four National League pennants, eight division titles and a .627 regular-season winning percentage, the highest for someone who has managed at least 250 games. From 2016 to 2024, the Dodgers won 907 regular-season and postseason games. Only the Houston Astros (862) and the New York Yankees (807) even surpassed 800.

The Dodgers won at least 100 regular-season games in five of six full seasons from 2017 to 2023 and finished the 60-game 2020 campaign with a .717 winning percentage. The only year the Dodgers have not won the NL West under Roberts, in 2021, they finished with 106 victories -- fewer by one than a San Francisco Giants team they later eliminated in the playoffs. And yet Roberts has only one Manager of the Year Award to his name, a sign of the harsh realities of his job.

For years, the Dodgers' triumphs have been widely credited to an ownership group with deep pockets and a baseball operations department that is among the most astute in the industry. Roberts, meanwhile, had been left to shoulder the blame for repeated postseason disappointments. That was never more true than in 2019, when another 106-win Dodgers team lost in the NL Division Series to the Washington Nationals after Roberts rode Clayton Kershaw a little too long in a decisive Game 5.

But Roberts went on to manage the Dodgers through an unorthodox 2020 postseason that was staged in a bubble and did not include any days off within series, claiming the franchise's first title in 32 years and buying himself more time. More October disappointment followed thereafter. The Dodgers were outlasted by the Atlanta Braves in the NLCS in 2021, then were defeated by inferior division rivals in the NLDS in 2022 and 2023, first the Padres and then the Arizona Diamondbacks.

A similar fate seemed to await the Dodgers in 2024. They found themselves a game away from elimination by the Padres in the NLDS, having to win in San Diego to keep their season afloat. A third consecutive early exit, immediately following a first-round bye, would have probably cost Roberts his job. But he managed through a bullpen game in Game 4, then rode more dominant pitching in Game 5 to advance. The Dodgers then breezed past the New York Mets and Yankees to secure their first full-season championship since 1988.

The 2024 season ultimately highlighted Roberts' best traits. His even-keel demeanor helped the team navigate the betting scandal surrounding Shohei Ohtani's then-interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, early in the year. His trademark positivity kept the team's spirits high when injuries plagued star players such as Mookie Betts, Max Muncy, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow throughout the summer. And in the fall, while dealing with an extremely compromised starting rotation, Roberts seemed to press all the right buttons.

He navigated through bullpen games on four occasions, most notably to save the season against the Padres and to win the pennant against the Mets. And in Game 5 of the World Series, when starting pitcher Jack Flaherty didn't pitch past the second inning, Roberts rode a beleaguered group of relief pitchers while the Dodgers made a spirited comeback and entrusted another starter, Walker Buehler, to record the final three outs.

With the win, Roberts put himself alongside Walter Alston and Tommy Lasorda as the only Dodgers managers to win multiple rings. It more than likely secured his place in the Hall of Fame. But what he was most proud of was that the trust he had always extended to his players had been reciprocated.

"That's everything," Roberts told ESPN shortly after securing the championship. "I believe in them. And this is the first team that I felt really like the trust went both ways. And that regardless of whatever decision I made, they were going to support me 100 percent."

The New York Post was first to report Roberts' extension.