Albert Pujols has made it abundantly clear that he is ready to take the next step as a manager after leading the Dominican Republic team Leones del Escogido to championships in both the Dominican Professional Baseball League and the Caribbean Series in his first season at the helm in 2024-2025. Pujols recently mentioned that he is interested in managing a major league team soon, and he expanded on that desire in an interview with USA Today’s Bob Nightengale. Pujols has received plenty of praise regarding his tenure as a manager, the most significant of which came from the man who helped guide Pujols and the St. Louis Cardinals to two championships.
Tony La Russa is confident in Pujols’ success in managing at the highest level.
Tony La Russa, the Cardinals manager from 1996 to 2011, was quoted in Nightengale’s article and simply said regarding Pujols as a major league manager, “He’s ready, and he’s going to be great.”
Pujols would be the first player who cracked the 700-home run mark to manage a major league team, and while several All-Stars managed teams after their playing days concluded, nobody who achieved Pujols’ level of success has served as a skipper in the big leagues. La Russa was a fringe major league player who appeared in only 132 games during his career, but La Russa said in Nightengale’s article that succeeding as a manger isn’t about how one performed on the field, but how much he loves the game.
La Russa cited Pujols’ inquisitiveness and mental commitment to baseball as tenets that would serve him well in the manager’s chair, and the only question for Pujols isn’t if, but when he will put on a major league uniform again. Returning to St. Louis would be the dream scenario, as there are few better choices than La Russa’s 11-year protege to carry on the hallowed Cardinals tradition to the next group of players. But regardless of the team Pujols eventually ends up managing, the game will be better for having him back in the fold.
Any remaining doubts about Pujols’ aptitude for the job should now be thoroughly squashed with La Russa’s endorsement, and the idea of Pujols commanding the Cardinals in the near future is not a far-fetched idea. After all, when La Russa talks, the Cardinals have historically tended to listen.