MLB insider questions if teams will ever hire Cardinals legend for a managerial role

For the last year, St. Louis Cardinals legends Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina both made it clear to Major League Baseball that they would like to become managers, and both threw their hats into the ring this offseason.

While there were no public reports of Molina interviewing for any gigs, Pujols was a candidate for the open managerial roles with the Los Angeles Angels, San Diego Padres, and Baltimore Orioles. While it felt like a guarantee that Pujols would land either the Padres or Angels jobs, all three organizations ended up going in different directions for various reasons.

Barring a major change in circumstances, this means that Pujols will not get his first shot at managing a big league team this offseason, and The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal is wondering what that means regarding how MLB teams view Pujols' future as a manager in this game.

MLB insider Ken Rosenthal wonders if MLB teams will ever hire Albert Pujols as their manager

On a recent appearance with the Foul Territory podcast, Rosenthal discussed how Pujols is left without a job after being very open about his interest in managing, and he brought up how teams may be hesitant to bring on Pujols for a variety of reasons.

While Rosenthal did not say Pujols will never be hired by a big league team, he did raise questions that others have in the past and teams likely did as well: Pujols has never coached in the Major Leagues, is a legendary player (which brings complications to the role), and is likely not going to operate like a "new school" manager would in today's game. For all of these reasons and possibly more, Pujols becomes a complicated candidate for interested teams.

Pujols has gotten experience as a manager, though, managing in the Dominican Winter League last year and will manage the Dominican Republic at the World Baseball Classic this spring. This certainly helps his resume, but it is highly unlikely that Pujols will go down the path of joining a big league staff before ever managing.

Rosenthal brought up a great point about this, though, as while some fans may think it is necessary for Pujols to take on that kind of role before being considered for managerial gigs, plenty of managers have been hired in recent years without any experience coaching or managing in the big leagues, or even the minor leagues. We even just saw the first example of a college baseball coach jumping to a big league manager in Tony Vitello, so I think Pujols is justified in waiting for the right gig to come to him.

Oliver Marmol appears to be the Cardinals' manager for the future, but they certainly could consider Pujols or Molina for that job after the 2026 season if they decide to part ways with Marmol. If not, I do think other teams will end up being interested in both of them once again, and I would be surprised if either doesn't get a job at some point. Still, Rosenthal's question did raise some good points, and it will be interesting to see how clubs view Pujols and Molina going forward.