Let’s talk about Albert Pujols and a mystery that isn’t much of a mystery. But based on some early media reports, I must say I expected to see Pujols land an MLB managing job for 2026.
This must be said up front: Pujols could have gotten a job. The Los Angeles Angels clearly wanted him to manage the team he played for over 9 and ½ seasons – but Pujols was too smart to jump into a hideous mess out there in Anaheim.
The Halos have made the postseason one time over the last 16 seasons. They’ve had 12 losing seasons during this wretched stretch and haven’t posted a winning record since 2015.
Since the start of 2010, the Angels are the only team among the 30 MLB franchises that’s failed to win a playoff game. And they’ve competed in the fewest number of postseason games (3) over those 16 years.
Meddling owner Arte Moreno has aggressively handed big contracts to a list of glaring failures including Josh Hamilton and Anthony Rendon. The Angels have flopped repeatedly despite having rosters that featured the likes of Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani, Pujols, Howie Kendrick, Jered Weaver, Andrelton Simmons and other notables.
The franchise was tainted by the drug-overdose death of star pitcher Tyler Skaggs and the involvement of a team official (Eric Kay) who was sentenced to 22 years in prison for supplying the fentanyl-laced pill that caused the pitcher’s death.
On top of that, Moreno reportedly insisted on dictating the conditions of the hiring by wanting to exercise control over the hiring of coaching staff and allocation of resources including Pujols’ salary. As a highly intelligent man, Pujols smartly declined to be stained by the Angels.
But yes, Pujols could have managed the Angels if he wanted to.
Next, Pujols met with San Diego general manager A.J. Preller for an interview that lasted 9 and ½ hours. As interpreted by the media, this serious and comprehensive session was the final step before Pujols’ hiring by the Padres.
Instead, the mercurial Preller pivoted and hired former MLB reliever Craig Stammen as manager. The level-headed Stammen had earned Preller’s trust while working in the baseball operations department in a variety of roles.
According to one Padres insider, Preller preferred a manager who aligned with their existing structure rather than going for the "marquee optics" of Pujols.
Translation: a fear of Pujols’ immense star power, popularity, and highly elevated status after a career that made him one of the greatest hitters in major-league history.
Pujols is the only MLB player to put together an illustrious resume that includes the combination of 3,000+ hits, 2,000+ runs batted in, 700+ homers and multiple league MVP awards.
And I think this has something to do with teams being hypercautious about hiring an icon as manager. Especially this baseball hero with a towering presence – but no major-league experience as a coach or manager.
Plus, Pujols isn’t a wallflower. He has his own ideas about how the game should be played. Which is understandable … considering the way he excelled at all phases of the game during a 22-season career that encompassed more than 3,100 games and 13,400 plate appearances (combined) in the regular season and postseason. I think Pujols knows his way around a major-league ballpark.
Eight managers have been hired so far, with only Colorado still searching.
Here’s the list of new skippers:
Second-chance guys: Skip Schumaker (Rangers), Derek Shelton (Twins) and Walt Weiss (Braves.)
Groundbreaking, bold and daring: Heralded Tennessee baseball coach Tony Vitello, Giants. The St. Louis native hadn’t spent a day in a major-league uniform until San Francisco president of baseball operations Buster Posey recruited him for a grand experiment.
Organization man: Craig Stammen, Padres. Major-league pitcher for 13 seasons. Never coached or managed in pro ball but was a “special assistant” behind the scenes in San Diego.
The Stephen Vogt model: Kurt Suzuki (Angels), a 16-year MLB catcher who earned great respect in the game. This hiring largely mirrors that of the Guardians hiring 10-year MLB catcher as manager after spending one season as a big-league bullpen coach with Seattle. Vogt won AL Manager of the Year in his first season (2024) and will get votes for his strong work in 2025. But the difference between Suzuki and Vogt: Suzuki will be managing for a poorly run organization, and Vogt manages for one of the smartest organizations in the bigs.
New from the respected Tampa Bay & Cleveland managerial training school: That would be Craig Albernaz, age 43, who was hired by the Orioles after serving as the bench coach, and later the associate manager, for Vogt in Cleveland. Before that he was a bullpen and catching coach in San Francisco. And he got his start as a minor-league manager (or field coordinator) in the Tampa Bay system from 2015 through 2019. The Orioles are betting on the pedigree that Albernaz brings to the job. And his energy and communication skills are said to be high-level stuff.
The latest young talent from the Tampa Bay colony of future MLB managers: The Nationals hired Blake Butera, age 33, who was drafted as a player by Tampa Bay … and who managed in the Tampa Bay minor-league system from 2015 through 2022 – winning awards and two league championships – before the Rays moved him to the majors as a field coordinator … and later promoted him to senior director of player development. Butera will be the youngest man to manage in the majors since Frank Quilici led the Twins in 1972.
You may be wondering why I’ve spent this time reviewing the seven guys who are moving into the manager’s office in 2026. My reason: this explains, at least to some extent, why a man like Pujols is still in line … at least for a while.
– Schumaker won NL Manager of the Year award in Miami and obviously warrants a second opportunity. But he sought to make himself more well-rounded and knowledgeable by working in the Texas front office to prepare for the manager’s job after Bruce Bochy stepped down.
– Shelton had a terrible record in Pittsburgh but no manager could win in a situation that has a cheap payroll and a reprehensible owner. Shelton is respected within the industry. Had the Twins not offered Shelton the job, he was probably headed to St. Louis to join Oli Marmol’s staff - or perhaps work for Chaim Bloom in a front-office role. (Shelton has baseball roots in Tampa Bay.)
– Weiss managed in Colorado (a lost cause) before joining the Braves as a coach in 2017. He’s another strong, traditional organizational guy who is well respected within the game. And he went with the old-timey way of “paying his dues” in the Atlanta dugout to earn another shot at managing.
– Vitello is a high-risk, high-reward talent, and I love that Posey broke away from the groupthink to make a fascinating, against-the-norm hire instead of recycling a manager or otherwise playing it safe. As a fan, I will be watching the Giants more than any team in baseball, outside of the Cardinals.
– Suzuki fits a pattern of former catchers becoming big-league managers. The number is huge, and I can list them all here. But in modern times the list of ex-catcher MLB managers includes Bochy, Vogt, Jim Leyland, Mike Scioscia, Joe Torre, Mike Matheny, Joe Girardi, Ned Yost, John Gibbons, John Schneider, Brad Ausmus, Clint Hurdle, Bob Melvin, Bob Brenly, David Ross, and Bob Boone. So this is a traditional hire. And a safe hire in that so many former catchers have won World Series as managers.
– Albernaz and Butera represent – again – why the Tampa Bay model is so highly acclaimed within the majors. The more forward-thinking front offices covet managers who are well versed in analytics and understand how important it is to evolve to keep up with the profound changes in the game.
So what does this have to do with Pujols? Well, pretty much everything.
1. Do you see any former big-league stars … Hall of Fame caliber players … or vaunted baseball celebrities … on the list of new hires? No.
2. Do you see any guys who would walk into the clubhouse for the first time as a manager and have the younger players ask him for autographs or be so in awe of him that it might be difficult to process? Would young players feel free to approach such a manager? Would they be crushed when a legend-of-the-game manager gets on them or benches them for screwing up?
3. Given the preference to hire dues-paying organization men or the safer candidates that have managed in the majors before, do you think that maybe Pujols is intimidating for at least some front-office types who want to be in control?
4. I don’t believe Pujols is opposed to analytics. He credits analytics provided by the Dodgers as a big factor in his late-career hitting revival. That said, with so many front offices wanting to tap into the analytics-heavy Tampa Bay and Cleveland model, would Pujols be a comfortable fit as manager? Would he “buy in” to front-office recommendations?
5. There’s still some resistance out there to hiring a larger-than-life figure such as Pujols.
"The question is whether the game will welcome him in that role,” Ken Rosenthal of Fox Network and the Athletic said of Pujols.
Isn’t that sad? No, it’s just the baseball mindset – which isn’t as advanced as we may have assumed.
As Rosenthal wrote: “All industries should welcome new ways of thinking. Baseball has done a good job of that over the past two decades, benefiting from advances in analytics and technology. Yet there is still risk in trying to be too creative with hires. It’s doubtful all of them will work out as intended.”
All due respect to Rosenthal, but where are the guarantees that traditional hires will work out as intended? Managers of every background and variety can count on getting sacked or eased out.
“What exactly is it some teams want, other than to do something different? Beats me,” Rosenthal wrote. “Their supposed boldness goes only so far.”
Rosenthal added: “Great players don’t always make great managers, but in an age when teams harp on collaboration, perhaps executives fear the strength of Pujols’ personality.
“Not that Pujols would be a sure thing, either,” Rosenthal continued. “The typical path to a major-league managing job – yes, even today – is through years of experience as a minor-league manager and/or major-league coach/manager … What kind of message do the other hires send to all those in the trenches, trying to work their way up? Or to former managers who might warrant a second chance?”
One quibble: baseball history has plenty of great players who became respectable, or good, managers.
In no particular order:
Joe Torre
Dusty Baker
Lou Piniella
Davey Johnson
Yogi Berra
Walter Johnson
Cap Anson
Dave Bancroft
Leo Durocher
Lou Boudreau
Bob Lemon
Bill McKechnie
Wilbert Robinson
Ty Cobb
Gabby Hartnett
Tris Speaker
Casey Stengel
Bucky Harris
And legends such as Ted Williams and Frank Robinson were better than their records show. (Take a look at Williams’ first season in Washington, and compare it to the year before.)
Mel Ott had three winning seasons for the NY Giants.
Red Schoendienst was a Hall of Fame player who won two pennants and a World Series as Cardinals manager. Eight of the 11 World Series captured in Cards history were won by first-time managers hired by the Redbirds: Rogers Hornsby, Gabby Street, Frankie Frisch, Billy Southworth (twice), Eddie Dyer, Johnny Keane and Schoendienst.
Sure, more than a few great players flopped as managers. But that’s no reason to eliminate big-time players as candidates.
I’m not saying Rosenthal is wrong about a lot of this stuff, or that he represents a fossilized view. Actually I respect his candor because Ken is letting us know what the thinking is within the baseball establishment – even at a time when young and/or inexperienced managers are getting MLB jobs. Obviously, the old-school philosophies (and anxieties) are still there.
So if you are still wondering why Pujols is still waiting and hoping for a shot at managing in the bigs, then pay close attention to Rosenthal’s frank remarks. His insights tell us a lot. And in this case the mystery isn’t much of a mystery.
Thanks for reading …
Bernie was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2023. During a St. Louis sports-media career that goes back to 1985, he’s won multiple national awards for column writing and sports-talk hosting – and was the lead sports columnist at the Post-Dispatch from 1989 through 2015. Bernie covered every Cardinals’ postseason game from 1996 through 2014 and was there to chronicle teams that won four NL pennants and two World Series.
You can access his columns, videos and the podcast version of the videos here on STLSportsCentral, catch him regularly on KMOX (AM or FM) as part of the Gashouse Gang, Sports Rush Hour, Sports Open Line or Sports On a Sunday Morning shows. And you can catch weekly “reunion” segments here at STL Sports Central featuring Bernie and Randy Karraker.