Ranking the Cardinals top managerial options if they fire Oliver Marmol in season

4. Albert Pujols

One of the greatest players ever to play, and arguably the best to ever represent the Birds on the Bat cracks this list because of his new position in the Dominican Winter League.

On February 21, Pujols was hired by the Escogido Baseball Club in the Dominican Winter League to be their manager. We will have to wait to see how his team performs but if Pujols wants to look into coaching for the long haul, you know the Cardinals will be keeping their eyes open, and understandably so.

Albert Pujols will forever be beloved in St. Louis for not just his outstanding play, but for his charitable causes and how much he has given back to the community. His first 11 seasons in St. Louis were something we will likely never see again, and his emotional return to the Cardinals to conclude his marvelous career was the perfect storybook ending, can you think of any Cardinal fan that would be against having Pujols come back as a manager?

I have Pujols at 4 because like Descalso, 2024 will be his first season in coaching, but also like Descalso, he has the qualities that would make a good manager. We saw a less intense Pujols in his return to St. Louis, someone who was just happy to be back and someone who was more than willing to teach and give advice, as we saw plenty of times in 2022 with Juan Yepez.

But as I mentioned earlier, if the Cardinals get off to a rough start in 2024 or they underachieve again this season and the team decides to make a coaching change, hiring someone like Pujols just might be stunning enough, and exciting enough, to light a fire to not just the team, but the fan base and completely change the culture of the team. The chances of this happening at this moment are slim but never say never.