Big City Matt Adams has some big aspirations for his post-playing career

On Sunday, Matt Adams posted on his social media that he was retiring from the game of baseball and that he was going to sign a one-day contract with the St. Louis Cardinals so he could retire as a Cardinal.

He got a well-deserved celebration of his career achievements on Wednesday throwing out the first pitch before the Cardinals game against the Pirates.

Right after the game was underway, Jeff Jones, a sportswriter who covers the Cardinals for the Belleville News-Democrat, posted a picture on X of Adams answering questions to the media inside the ballpark. In the tweet, Jones said that Adams " intends on managing in the big leagues someday ".

The 36-year-old Adams had a decade-long career in the big leagues after being a 23rd-round draft pick of the Cardinals in 2009. He played an integral part to the Cardinals' division-winning teams in 2013, 2014, and 2015, and won a World Series with the Washington Nationals in 2019.

Adams did say that he would want to manage in the big leagues " someday" so that does not necessarily mean immediate. He just retired from playing so he does not have any coaching experience, we may see him get a coaching job at a lower level to help him jump-start his hopes of a second career in baseball.

However we have seen some recently hired managers in Major League Baseball with little to no experience in coaching. There are two who come to mind, one is the current interim manager of the White Sox Grady Sizemore who was working as an intern in the Diamondbacks organization in 2023 but never had coaching experience before that. He is not expected to be the manager of the White Sox in 2025, as the White Sox are expected to hire someone more seasoned for the job, but one who has seen huge success with minimal experience is Stephen Vogt with the Cleveland Guardians.

Vogt had a similar playing career as Adams, late round draft pick (12th round pick of the Rays in 2007), multiple seasons in the minor leagues before getting to the big leagues, and was able to grind out an 11-year playing career. Right after retiring from playing with the Athletics in 2022, he was hired by the Mariners in 2023 to be the bullpen and quality control coach, and in less than 10 months after taking that position, he was hired to be the manager of the Guardians.

A manager who is just two years out of playing, and had no previous managing experience, has led to the Guardians to one of the best records in baseball. They are going to make the playoffs and should win the AL Central, as they hold a 6 game lead on the Royals with 9 games to play.

The recent success from Vogt might lead other teams that are looking for a new manager to look for somebody like Vogt, who is young and has a special ability to connect with his players and get the most out of them. If this becomes a trend, why not give Matt Adams a shot somewhere? We could see "Big City" being the big boss in the dugout in the near future.