Albert Pujols could be the Angels next manager. (Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images)
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Last off-season the Los Angels of Anaheim hired former major league catcher Kurt Suzuki to become a first-time manager. In a show of either disrespect or as a hedge against failure or simply not to have to worry about paying a manager during a protracted lock-out after the current season, the Angels only gave Suzuki a one-year contract. With his appointment, Suzuki became the club’s fifth manager since Mike Scioscia ended his 19-year run in 2018. Brad Ausmus took the reins for one season (winning just 72 games); Phil Nevin lasted 268 games, but had the exact same winning percentage as Ausmus; Ron Washington made it to a second season before leaving the team for open-heart surgery (his .419 winning percentage was worse than his predecessors); and Ray Montgomery filled in for “Wash,” winning just 36 of 88 games.
Of the above names, Nevin had a one-year deal with a team option for a second, which they did not exercise. Montgomery was an interim manager from the get, and he was never going to last beyond 2025.
As of this writing, the Angels are the worst team in baseball. They lead all of MLB in strikeouts (by batters) and are below league average in every other offensive category worth tracking.
On the pitching side, they are 24th in team ERA and runs allowed, 26th in hit batsmen, 28th in walks, and dead last in saves (with only 10 through 93 games). They are above average in home runs allowed and strikeouts, but are tied for 28th in ERA+.
Defensively, they have made the fifth most errors in the game, are 24th in double plays turned, and tied for the 28th worst fielding percentage.
Suffice it to say, the Angels are not good. Their best player (of all-time), Mike Trout, is just off the injured list (and hit a homer in his first game back); and their second-best player (Zach Neto) has made fourteen errors at shortstop.
Last month team president Molly Jolly fired general manager Perry Minasian after five-plus years in that position. In his place she brought in former St. Louis Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak. “Mo” is on a six-month contract to oversee the Draft, handle the Trade Deadline, and find a new general manager. But the smart money has the team finding a new field manager as well.
One name that has been thrown around for open positions in New York and Boston would be a perfect fit in Anaheim, and he is already on the payroll. When Albert Pujols signed his ten-year, $240 million contract with the Angels in 2011, it also included a 10-year, $10 million personal services component that is in place until 2031. Pujols would most likely command more than $1 million per season to manage the Angels, but if the club is already on the hook for the money, then it would not be much of a hit to their bottom line to add the future Hall of Famer as the team’s skipper. And one known fact around baseball is that Angels owner Arte Moreno doesn’t like to spend extra money if he doesn’t have to.
Pujols managed the Dominican Republic team in the World Baseball Classic, getting to the semi-finals before losing 2-1 to USA. Prior to the WBC, Pujols led Leones del Escogido to the Dominican Winter League championship (the final of which put Junior Caminero on the baseball map). The fourth member of the 700-home run club is known as a good communicator and a strong team-builder. Just this week, on the Baseball Tonight podcast, Pujols told host Buster Olney that “any team that would like to give me that opportunity, I will go for it, and I will prepare myself and do the best that I can.”
Pujols will be on the short list of those to whom the Angels would offer that opportunity.