Albert Pujols is managing Team Dominican Republic. Could an MLB team be next? – The Athletic

MIAMI — The video made the rounds Tuesday. There was Albert Pujols, the great slugger who clobbered 703 home runs in a decorated major-league career, stepping back in the box, knees bent, bat held high, just like always.

Less than four years removed from his playing career, the swing is the same, effortless but authoritative. Pujols is now managing the Dominican Republic in this year’s World Baseball Classic. In Tuesday’s off-site workout, he took a few cuts and sent a home-run ball sailing.

This was an innocuous, fun moment in the middle of a pressure-packed tournament. It was also a sight that brings a central question into focus: Can a great player also be a great manager?

More specifically: Can Albert Pujols someday lead an MLB club to glory?

To hear it from Dusty Baker, a man who witnessed Pujols’ hitting wrath firsthand and knows a thing or two about what managing takes, the answer is a resounding yes.

“It shouldn’t be someday. He should be managing right now,” said Baker, who managed Nicaragua in the WBC. “There are a lot of guys that are managing that don’t have the experience on the field of Albert Pujols. I didn’t have much (managerial) experience either. I coached for a while, and then I had experience in the fall league.

“There are a lot of guys in the game that don’t have the experience that Albert Pujols has, that don’t have the knowledge that Albert Pujols has or don’t have the respect from the players.”

For now, though, Pujols is still waiting for someday to arrive.

Had this winter gone differently, Pujols might not be managing in the World Baseball Classic. He was linked to three managerial openings over the offseason — the Angels, Padres and Orioles.

Contract talks with the Angels broke down. The Orioles hired Craig Albernaz, a well-regarded candidate who cut his teeth as the Cleveland Guardians’ bench coach and associate manager. The Padres reportedly interviewed Pujols for several hours. Despite its length, industry chatter suggested the interview did not go well.

Among the obstacles for Pujols? His own greatness as a player could inhibit his managerial ambitions. What front office will be willing to hire a presence as large as this one? Can the best right-handed hitter of his generation actually relate to modern players, let alone executives, analysts, trainers, scouts, media members and more?

As a player, Pujols could be classy, thoughtful and, at times, quite prickly when locked in on his craft. It is difficult to know how any personality translates to a job as all-consuming as the manager. Some breathe in the job quickly. Some take time to lead as their authentic selves. Others get crushed under the pressure or the weight of their own insecurities.

Schedules for managers can be hectic beyond belief, meeting after meeting with one department or another. No wonder, then, many of the best managers in today’s game trend more toward polished diplomats than the fiery dictators of yesteryear.

But doubt Pujols’ chances at your own risk. He was once a 13th-round draft pick who became a star overnight, a man who always remained driven by doubts.

Observing Pujols at exhibition games and the WBC over the past 10 days has been enlightening. He has been poised with the media. Confident in the dugout. Managerial on a team loaded with star egos and controlled on a club that loves to celebrate.

He’s even looking above the dugout railing with a pair of black-rimmed glasses.

“I had managers such as Tony La Russa, Dave Roberts, Joe Maddon, Oli Marmol, Hall of Famers,” Pujols said. “You learn a lot from them. … This is something that I have been developing, and I have the chance to go to the stadium and learn something new every day.

“I don’t think that, just because I have been here for 23 years, I know everything. Every time I come to the stadium, I have this open mindset to learn, and I will learn with every play and go back to the hotel thinking, ‘Well, I could have done this a different way.’”

Also important to note: Pujols at the WBC has carried himself not as some shameless self-promoter but more as someone deeply invested in winning for his home country.

In the first game of this Classic, his team was tied with underdog Nicaragua into the sixth inning before its offense finally awakened. A reporter asked afterward if Pujols had to give his team extra motivation.

Pujols lifted the front of his jersey.

“My brother,” he said, “this is all the motivation you need.”

The World Baseball Classic is a poor place to judge a manager on the field.

Information on lesser teams can be limited. Sample sizes for the whole tournament is even smaller than the crapshoot that is the MLB postseason. With pitch-count restrictions and players balancing responsibility to their MLB clubs, the strategy does not compare to a 162-game grind.

Pujols made a decisive pitching change in the ninth inning of a 7-5 win against Venezuela after Abner Uribe walked the bases loaded. Otherwise, his team has simply slugged its way to a 4-0 record.

Pujols’ more relevant education came more than a year ago, when he managed Leones del Escogido in the Dominican Winter League. This was part stepping stone, sure. It was also another deeply emotional assignment.

Pujols grew up in the shadows of Estadio Quisqueya. He sold frikitaki sandwiches in the stands to help his family. He still remembers watching Águilas Cibaeñas outfielder Stanley Javier hit for the cycle, just before Pujols left for the United States.

“Back when they used to wear those yellow uniforms,” he said, smiling. “They were ugly.”

After his playing career took him beyond his wildest dreams, he returned to manage the Escogido team, overcoming ups and downs, injuries and countless mistakes to win the Dominican Winter League and Caribbean Series titles. He has talked about an epiphany — driving home, frustrated and hit with a realization that he had to be better about sharing his knowledge, helping others.

“Albert has done a great job, and he’s been doing it from day one in winter ball,” said Yadier Molina, Puerto Rico’s manager and a longtime Cardinals teammate who also holds MLB managerial ambitions. “Albert is a baseball guy. I think he’s going to be in the big leagues very soon.”

Pujols hit 703 home runs over a 22-year career. (Charles LeClaire / USA Today)

Back in the winter league, there was no player Pujols poured himself into quite like Junior Caminero, the talented third baseman for the Tampa Bay Rays. Caminero charged at the opposing dugout in Game 4 of the championship. He was a brazen slugger who still had much to learn, in ways both physically and emotionally.

Pujols perhaps saw shades of himself in Caminero. He pushed him, talked to him and taught him.

Last season, at age 21, Caminero hit 45 home runs for the Rays. In this WBC, Caminero has also popped two electric home runs, standing out on a D.R. team with limitless star power.

“I think when I got a chance to be his manager in the D.R., I built a great relationship,” Pujols said. “Because more than the talent and the ability these players have, man, they’re human beings. … This experience that I’m creating with these guys is probably going to be on the top of my career, to be able to have this talent and this great team.

“I’m a big believer that, when you allow that to a player, (make them) feel comfortable, you get the best out of them.”

There is a strange lack of modern precedent for a player of Pujols’ stature to command the dugout.

Plenty of Hall of Famers have become managers. Few have had prolonged careers on the bench, and equally few have done so recently. Paul Molitor was the most recent Hall of Fame player to manage an MLB game. He spent four seasons with the Twins starting in 2015 and finished with a losing record.

Only five men — Joe Torre, Frank Robinson, Kirk Gibson, Don Baylor and Don Mattingly — have won both MVP and Manager of the Year Awards. Ted Williams had a .429 winning percentage in four seasons as a skipper. Even Babe Ruth aspired to be a manager but never got the chance.

Brad Ausmus, manager of Team Israel in this WBC, managed Pujols for one season with the Angels. This week, he was looking at Pujols in the opposing dugout, unsurprised at his desire to manage.

“I know he really enjoys the strategy of the game, the history of the game,” Ausmus said. “He’s one of the greatest players to walk the planet.”

Pujols is a deity to young players from the Dominican Republic, one of the stars who inspired their dreams as children. Along with Team D.R. GM Nelson Cruz, the Dominican Republic assembled a dream team of talent ready to come and play with Pujols as their skipper.

“It’s truly incredible having a legend like Albert in the clubhouse, leading every single one of us as our manager,” Juan Soto told reporters in Spanish. “He’s been in our shoes and truly understands how we feel, how the pieces move on the field, every swing we take, every decision we make. He’s right there with us through it all, and that makes it something truly special and beautiful.”

A.J. Hinch’s Detroit Tigers played the Dominican Republic national team in two exhibition games at Estadio Quisqueya last week. For years, Hinch managed against Pujols and struggled to find ways to get him out.

“It’s very unique to have someone as decorated as him in the other dugout, leading a team,” Hinch said. “But I know it’s a passion of his, and I know it’s something he wants to do. Even this offseason, I heard the rumblings of him wanting to get into managing. … I hope he gets an opportunity to potentially manage. Maybe we’ll have better luck matching up against him than last night or when he was a player.”

An interpreter seated to Hinch’s left relayed those words to a room full of Dominican media.

Then Hinch added one more point.

“We need to keep our legends in the game,” he said.

So far, the Dominican Republic has thrilled in this tournament, hitting 13 home runs in four games.

On a team that unleashes lavish celebrations and has embraced the emotion of the WBC, Pujols has been the face of calm and focus.

“You see no emotions on my face because we have to respect the rival,” he said, translated from Spanish. “Our goal is to win the game. And until you’re done, this show belongs to the players. It is not my show.”

Pujols has let his team embrace its personality. Players don jackets and colorful chains and hoist a plantain-wrapped dumbbell after home runs.

After each win, Pujols has also been crystal clear about the bigger goal, speaking like a true manager.

“Our mission is not over until it’s over,” he said. “We’re going to be focusing day by day, winning innings, playing defense, taking advantage of the mistakes the other teams are making, and at the same time, taking what they’re giving us.”

The current crop of MLB managers consists largely of former backup catchers and utility infielders. Mark Kotsay of the Athletics leads active managers in bWAR as a player with a modest 21.4. Pujols, for the record, finished at 101.2.

The manager job is still evolving, as is the background of those who get these coveted gigs. The San Francisco Giants just hired Tony Vitello straight from Tennessee, with no major-league experience of any kind. Some in the sport view Vitello as a litmus test that could allow for more college coaches or outsiders to land MLB jobs.

So what kind of team would Pujols best fit? Who might actually be willing to take a chance? It’s incredibly hard to say.

Pujols, though, did not have to let loose and take a few swings to remind everyone of who he is, what he’s done, why he is qualified.

“That’s huge in this equation, how your players respect you,” Baker said. “It helps when they look on the back of your bubble-gum card and it says he’s one of the baddest dudes that ever played this game. Albert Pujols should be managing somewhere right now.”