Orioles reportedly interested in Albert Pujols for their managerial opening

Orioles reportedly interested in Albert Pujols for their managerial opening

A new name has entered the Orioles search process for a manager. It’s the future Hall of Famer Albert Pulhos. We’ll talk about how realistic that is coming up on this episode of the Locked on Orioles podcast. You are Locked On Orioles, your daily Baltimore Orioles podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. Hey there, Orioles fans. Today is Monday, October 20th, 2025. And welcome back in to the Locked Ono podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. As always, I’m your host, Connor Nukem. And coming up on today’s episode, we’re going to talk about the report that came out from last week that the Orioles are potentially interested in interviewing Albert Pulos for their managerial opening. We’ll talk about what his background at baseball and coaching is, the other teams that are interested in him, and why, you know, he may not be the O’s manager, but why at least it’s nice that they are looking a little bit outside the box. Then we’ll chat about Brandon Hyde, what his next job might be. And finally, some other outside the box candidates the Orioles could take a look at. But that’s all coming up on this episode of the Locked On Orioles podcast, which is brought to you by Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use code locked on MLB for $20 off your first purchase. So, at this point, in the process of the nine managerial openings around Major League Baseball, only one of them has been filled. That is the Texas Rangers. Bruce Bochi out. Skip Schumacher is in. Though Schumacher was already working in the Rangers front office, so a pretty easy quote unquote hire to make. The other eight who are presumably looking outside the organization, although the Orioles still could theoretically give Tony Manelino the full-time job. The other eight teams that are looking outside the organization, they are still looking. And if you kind of go back to 2024 and you see where the manager hirings happened, usually last week of October, first week of November, right around the World Series and the World Series ending is generally when these hires happened. So, it’s not like the O’s are behind anybody. Again, there’s seven other teams in the same spot who have not made a hire yet. And some of that might be because a lot of teams are hiring the same candidates. And one candidate who seems to be already have interviewed with multiple teams now potentially is the future Hall of Famer Albert Pulos. As it was reported on Wednesday night of last week, Alden Gonzalez and Jeff Passen of ESPN reporting that the Orioles are expected to interview Albert Pulos for the manager job. Now, at this point recording here Sunday afternoon, it’s not clear if that interview with Albert has actually happened yet with the Orioles, but that’s certainly a different name. Now, all we know to this point is that the Orioles are considering Tony Manelino to keep the job and that they have interviewed former Mets manager and current Yankees third base coach Luis Rojos for the job. Rojos is the only one we definitely know that they interviewed. And it had been previously reported that the Angels were actually closing in on Albert Pulos as their choice to be their next manager. But now Sam Blum over at The Athletic is reporting that the Angels are strongly considering other options. Now, Sam Blum and Jeff Passen both reported that Pulhos is still the most likely candidate to be the Angels manager and not so much for the Orioles. You know, he played for them. He’s on this 10-year $10 million contract with the Angels right now to be like a special assistant to the front office and an ambassador for the team and like an instructor at spring training and other things. So, I guess makes it a little bit easier for them to hire him as their manager. But I think most people expected, okay, Pulos’s name first came up with the Angels, and it wasn’t terribly shocking. At least we knew he wanted to get into managing at the big league level. The more surprising is that another team outside of Anaheim would be interviewing him. I think the thought was either Pulos would get the Angels job or he’d be waiting at least another year to get a big league managerial job. Maybe not so fast. The Orioles at least have some interest here. Now for Pulos, he does have a little bit of coaching experience. He managed Esco in Leome last winter. That is the Dominican winter league. Probably the the best known and highest level winter league uh in the Caribbean and he did lead them to their first Lee Dome title since the 2015 16 season when Esco won it all last winter. They also went on to win the 2025 Caribbean Series which is kind of like the Champions League in soccer but for the best Caribbean winter ball teams from some of the other countries uh that do have winter ball leagues as well. So, not only did they win Lee Dome, but they also won the Caribbean Series under Pulos. And that’s very different still from managing in Major League Baseball, but it is some experience. And Pulhos, at least at this point, is also set to manage team Dominican Republic in the 2026 World Baseball Classic that gets started in around February or so of next year. Now, that’s something that’s a position he would step down from if either the Orioles or the Angels or some other team hire him to be their big league manager. so he of course can be in big league spring training in February. But it just shows that he’s getting the experience. He’s looking for more experience and I think most people know he wants to be a manager at some point. That’s one of the reasons why he is interviewing for these jobs. Now he does have a connection to the Orioles through Mike Elias because Elias’s first job out of college was working in scouting with the Cardinals from 2007 to 2011 until he took the job with the Astros. And that was the tail end of Pulos’s time as a player for the Cardinals. That 2011 season was his final one in St. Louis. And Pulos is still close with Matt Holiday, who they played together with the Cardinals. Of course, Matt is the father of Jackson Holiday, currently the Orioles leadoff hitter and second baseman. The two of them are still pretty close after playing together. So, PH does have some connections to Baltimore, and I think most people listening to this know his MLB credentials. If not, he’s going to be a Hall of Famer. 22 big league seasons from 2001 to 2022. 12 years with the Cardinals, 10 with the A Angels, then had a kind that had that uh resurgent half season with the Dodgers right there at the end. 11time all-star. He won three MVPs 2005, 2008, and 2009 in St. Louis. Also won rookie of the year with the Cardinals, won two World Series titles with the Cards. Simply put, Pulos is one of the probably 10 greatest hitters of all time, you could argue, in Major League Baseball. And when he’s eligible here a couple years from now, I guess it’ll be 2027, he’ll be eligible. He’s a slam dunk Hall of Famer. I will say that while I don’t think Pulos will be the Orioles manager, even though the O’s are going to interview him, I still think he’s either going to get the Angels job or he will not be a big league manager this off seasonason and probably wait until the next cycle next year. I do enjoy that the Orioles are somewhat thinking outside the box with this interview with Albert Pulhos. is kind of similar to the option I gave when I did my first, you know, kind of seven managerial options for the Orioles episode after the season. And one of my options that I gave out is Carlos Beltron, who was briefly hired as the manager of the Mets a couple of years ago before the trash can banging scandal got out. He was fired before even managing a game in New York and he has stayed around the game since then. You know, another a great player in his time who has a connection to Mike Elias as well, but would be a little different. Now, Pull Host does not come with the same cheating questions that Carlos Beltron comes from, but as Michaelas has talked about, you know, managerial experience is good and something they’re looking into for the next manager, but it’s not always necessary to get the best candidate out there. And if the Orioles feel that Albert Pulhos gives a certain level of leadership and experience into that clubhouse that the Orioles clubhouse needs, I’d be totally on board with them making Albert Pulhos the full hire for this job. Now again, overall I if I had to make a prediction, I think Pulos will be the Angels manager next year and that organization’s kind of a disaster and we’ll see how that goes. But I do at the very least, again, not really thinking that he’s going to be the O’s manager. I I’d say of the two guys who’ve interviewed that we know so far, I think Luis Rojos has a better chance of ending up being the Orioles manager. But I do like it that the Orioles are looking around. They’re probably interviewing a ton of different people already, considering different options from different places. And that tells me, hey, Elias and the team are trying to uncover every stone to find the best manager for this team going forward to get them back in contention where they need to be after a very disappointing 2025 season. So, you know, we’ve talked about a lot of names that could be connected, have been connected with this managerial job. How about some other outside the box ideas because Post is definitely somewhat outside the box. Let’s go even further out of it. How about three more candidates coming up next that I haven’t mentioned yet really in this managerial search that maybe the O’s would take a look at to try and um you know zigg while others zag as all these manager jobs are open this off season. But first, this episode of the Lockdown Orioles podcast is brought to you by Game Time. There’s nothing like catching a baseball game live. the energy, the crowd, the chance to see your team in person, but actually getting tickets, that’s the tough part. 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Other teams are looking at him, so not maybe fully outside the box, but but how about three more names that are outside the box because we have a potential hire coming up around baseball. That was definitely some different thinking as Ken Rosenthal and others at the Athletic reported on Saturday that the San Francisco Giants were close to hiring Tennessee baseball head coach Tony Battello to be their new manager. Now, Jeff Passen of ESPN did report later on Saturday that the deal wasn’t done yet and it would be in the next 48 to 72 hours that an official decision on the both the Giants and Vatello’s side would be made. But Tony Vatello, I mean, that’s a guy who came in, you know, he’s been at Tennessee for the past seven years. They’ve won a national championship. They’ve one of the best programs in baseball. He’s a fiery guy. But even with all of his success at UT, I mean, it’s definitely a risk. A guy who’s never coached or managed or played anywhere near the big league level in professional baseball. It’s a different animal, but I respect the Giants for going that direction. Again, as of recording here Sunday afternoon, nothing is official that he’s getting that Giants job, but I love that San Francisco thought about it, that Vital is interested in it. Like, that is an intriguing outside the box hire. So, who are some other candidates like Vatello, like Albert Pulos that the Orioles could target? I came up with three of them, all three from a different category. Category number one is the Tony Vitello category, the college coach with lots of success category, and that is 47year-old Clemson baseball head coach Eric Backage. Now, Backage does have a local connection. His first head coaching job at the Division One level was at the University of Maryland for three years from 2010 to 2012. He came over to Maryland, his first head coaching job. Never got to see the fruits of his labor because he left for a better job after three years. But that program was in dismay. It hadn’t been to the NCA tournament since the early 1970s. He didn’t get him there in those three years, but he made them so much better. And he built the groundwork for the next coach, John Chef, to come in and take that Maryland team to back-to-back super regionals in 2014 and 2015 and put them onto the map in college baseball. He had I mean Bakage had the best recruiting classes basically Maryland had ever had in baseball and turned that program around and he turned that into a job at Michigan. Again, not a perennial baseball power, but he built that program up into the best one in the Big 10 and made it to the College World Series finals. Didn’t win at all, but made it to the finals in 2019. An incredible feat for a Big 10 team, especially in a cold weather state in Michigan. Then he got eventually the Clemson job. He’s been there for the past three years and has made Clemson, which was already a solid program, into one of the best teams in the country. Now, Clemson has not, you know, had the big college World Series run under him yet, but it’s something Backage has done. Pretty fiery guy, but, you know, people seem to to like him in his dugouts. I think maybe the skills could translate into an MLB clubhouse. You’d again need to surround him with veteran coaches, I think, on his staff, but maybe that’s an outside the box job that they could do. Second guy is more in the pool category. This is MLB legend who didn’t retire that long ago and is now interested in coaching. And that is Pulose’s former teammate, 43-year-old former big league catcher Yadier Molina, who was the Cardinals catcher for a long, long time, 2004 to 2022 as their catcher. All with St. Louis, a 10-time all-star and a two-time World Series champion. Of course, was there in St. Louis when Mike Elias worked there as well from 2007 to 2011. And just like Pulos has a little bit of managerial experience. Molina was the manager of team Puerto Rico at the 2023 World Baseball Classic and is set to do that same job for Puerto Rico in next year’s WBC in 2026. And Molina was very public this week talking saying he wants to get into coaching in the major leagues. Is open to not beginning with managing. He’s apparently been in talks with the Cardinals for some sign of coaching job on their major league staff, but eventually does want to be a big league manager. He’s got those connections. He’s a catcher. He’s had a lot of success. He’s again, why not take take at least a little look into it. Final name there is the one that would I think be the the the closest to the box itself of these three would be the one that makes the most sense. the one guy with actual managerial experience, but that is 61-year-old former manager and current ESPN and Yes Network analyst Joe Gerardi, who has managed for three different ball clubs in his career. One year with the Marlins in 2006, 10 years with the Yankees 2008 to 2017, and three years with the Phillies from 2020 to 2022 was his last managerial job. Now, only time he had a losing record in a full big league season was that one year with the Marlins in 2006. But even that year, he turned around a bad team, won 78 games, and was named National League Manager of the Year after he had already been fired by the Marlins. Now, he caught on with the Yankees two years later and immediately had success in his second year with the Yankees. They won the 2009 World Series under Gerard’s leadership. He continued to take the Yankees back to the postseason, but never was able to kind of get over the hump and eventually lost his job after 2017’s loss. And Aaron Boon came in to take the job. Now, he was hired by the Phillies to try and get them out of the rebuild. Didn’t go so well. Gerardi was fired in the middle of the 2022 season by the Phillies. Rob Thompson took over, led the team to the World Series that year. And of course, Thompson has been Phillies manager since then. Now, he was a big league catcher for 15 years, you know, throughout most of the 90s and others. Won uh three World Series. He was an all-star one year and actually does have a connection to the Orioles. Now, this has almost been 20 years ago, but in 2007 when the Orioles fired Sam Palazo as their manager, they actually interviewed Joe Gerardi and offered him the job. This was after Gerard had been fired by the Marlins. It was about, you know, what, six months before he took the Yankees job and he was kind of back working in TV at that point. He interviewed the Orioles offered him the job, but he turned it down. Did not take the Orioles job, waited out for a better job, and he got it in that off season getting the Yankee job. I wonder what history would have been like differently if the O’s had Gerardi, you know, a couple years before they eventually hired Buck Shoalter. But speaking of Buck Shoalter, the last time the Orioles hired a veteran big league manager, straight out of a TV baseball job, which is what they did when they hired Buck, he was on TV in 2010 before he took the Orioles job. It worked out pretty well for this franchise. So, I’m not saying Joe Gerardi would be Buck Shoalter here, but he’s a guy who brings the experience, but it’s also a little outside the box at this point. He’s won a World Series. You certainly love that. I wouldn’t be totally against it. Now, Gerardi, I think the biggest issue with him probably is that most people around him, it seems like at this point, don’t think he’s going to take another managerial job. I don’t think it’s completely out of the question, but we will certainly see uh if that is a possibility for the Orioles. We just wanted to give three more candidates that, hey, especially with the Albert Pulos news, the Tony Bello news, maybe some others were not even thinking of could be in the running for this Orioles managerial job. Speaking of Orioles manager, of course, there is an opening because the O’s back in May fired Brandon Hyde, who had been here since he was hired in November of 2018, the last time the Orioles went through a process like this. But Hyde is not uh going to be gone for long. It seems like he’s going to have a job in baseball for 2026 and might even be a big league manager again. Get you those quick updates on our former boss Brandon Hyde to finish off the show coming up next. But first, this episode of the Lockdown Orioles podcast is also brought to you by FanDuel. The NFL season is here and FanDuel has an offer you don’t want to miss. Right now, new customers can bet just $5 and get $300 in bonus bets if you win. That’s right. Just pick a bet, put down five bucks, and if it hits, you’ll unlock $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. And I love how FanDuel gives me so many ways to play. You can build parlays, you can try player props, you can even follow the live lines during these games, and it makes watching football even more exciting when you got a little something riding on the action. So whether you’re a casual fan or you just love diving into the stats, FanDuel makes that game day experience so much better, especially when you know the Ravens are on a buy or you just really don’t want to watch the Ravens at this point even when they are playing. So what are you waiting for? Visit fanuel.com to download the FanDuel app today and get started. So to finish out this kind of managerial centered episode of the Locked on Orioles podcast, want to talk a little bit about Brandon Hyde, who uh reportedly is in the mix for some other jobs. Now let’s start with the Giants. Now we know, as I just talked about, seems like they’re leaning towards Tennessee head coach Tony Bello being their next manager. Although, as Jeff Pass reported on Saturday, not a done deal yet and still could fall apart. Buster Posey and the Giants have also reportedly spoken to Brandon Hyde about the manager job. Of course, the Orioles fired Hyde back in May after he’d been the manager since 2019. Didn’t, you know, take another job during the season, but it would be an intriguing spot for Brandon Hyde to take over. if Tony Vitello doesn’t end up taking this Giants job. Nick Hundley, another former Orioles catcher, seemed to be the front runner for a while, but reportedly Hundley has pulled his name out of the Giants managerial search, citing some sort of family concerns or situations or whatever. Maybe it doesn’t mean he’s not ready to manage in 2026 because of that. Hope obviously all the best for him and his family, whatever is going on there. But if it’s not Vital, maybe it would be Brandon Hyde in San Francisco. Be an interesting spot for him. you know, they have some veterans more than the Orioles did, but it’s still a team on the younger side for the Giants. And it’s a team that’s trying to get over the hump, right? Really, since that crazy 107 win season back in 2021 under Gabe Kappler, this team’s been like a perennial 500 team. I mean, they literally went 81 and 81 this season. They’re looking to get over the hump. That’s why they hired a veteran manager in Bob Melvin to come in and get them over the hump. He couldn’t do it. They let him go after this season. Maybe Hyde could do it. Now, you could argue Brandon Hyde wasn’t able to do that in Baltimore. He did take them to back-to-back playoff appearances. He helped them get better probably sooner than they thought in that 2022 season when they really turned things around. But he also went 0 and5 in the postseason. Had a disaster start to this year. And you could argue the Orioles definitely got better underhide, but never got over the hump they were looking to get to, especially when it comes to postseason success. But again, they brought in Bob Melvin to be that over the hump guy, and it didn’t work. So maybe they go in a different direction with someone like Brandon Hyde. Now Sam Blum of The Athletic is also reporting that Brandon Hyde could be in the mix for the Angels job as well, especially if you know Pool Host doesn’t take it or takes the Orioles job or whatever it may be. I do feel like if Hyde does get another managerial job, especially if he gets one this off season, it’ll be with more of a rebuilding team. Now, who knows exactly what the overall plans are for the Angels franchise. Can you really call them in a rebuild or just treading water and being a bad organization? I would say is closer to what the Angels are. But Hyde, especially early on in Baltimore and when the team made the transition to being good, he showed that he can really excel in that rebuilding environment. He was kind of ready for the tough moments early on, you know, from 2019 through 2021 and then was able to turn that clubhouse around when he got a little more talent in there to work with. And I feel like, you know, even the Rocky’s job, maybe the Minnesota Twins jobs that are open, potentially the Nationals job this off seasonason could work well for Brandon Hyde. He seemed to be comfortable in that spot. He not only knows how to handle a team that’s kind of built to lose, but can also help to transition that team back into winning. He’s shown success in both of those things in his time at the helm of the Orioles. And I I I still think he was a good manager here. I overall think that for Hyde, like he was scapegoed a bit in Baltimore. Something certainly had to change with how terrible the Orioles were the 15 and 28 start. What they chose to change was firing Brandon Hy in midMay. Did it work out? I mean, the team played better under Manelino, but they weren’t anywhere close to turning the season around and even sniffing close to the postseason. So, I’m not sure it worked out in the complete way they wanted it to. You know, who knows if he would have kept the job. Would he just have gotten fired this off seasonason anyway? There’s obviously questions there that we won’t have the answer to, but I still think he was a good big league manager and I think he certainly deserves another job if he wants one. It seems like there are multiple teams at least willing to interview him this off season. Even if he doesn’t get another manager role, I have to expect with him interviewing for jobs, he’ll probably have a job. Maybe maybe someone’s bench coach or, you know, he was a base coach for the with the Cubs for a while. Maybe he goes back to that for a little bit and kind of rebuilds his managerial value for a couple of years and eventually gets a job. We’ve seen plenty of candidates do that as well as they kind of cycle through those big league managerial and coaching jobs as well. But whoever the Orioles hire, you know, we’ll see World Series get started here on Friday. So, at some point, you know, mid to late next week, the season could be over. And that will probably expedite a little bit more these managerial hirings, you want to do them before you do any free agency and trade stuff generally for most teams, especially ones that look to compete in 2026 like the Orioles do. So, hopefully we are sooner rather than later at this point of the Orioles hire. And whenever it happens, we’ll certainly have the coverage right here on the show. But until that does happen, we continue our Orioles season review series. Next up on tomorrow’s episode, Kovichic. What a weird year. He started a lot. He was the Orio’s third most valuable pitcher in terms of F war. He also wasn’t very good. He also made his change up better. His breaking balls were worse. And there’s a lot to talk about with what went on with Kovich. Is there even a spot on this team for him next year is another question. We’ll get into all that on tomorrow’s episode to recap his season. Until then, make sure to like, comment, and subscribe to the Locked on Orioles YouTube channel. Make sure you’re subscribing or following the show wherever you listen, Apple Podcast or Spotify. Leave a fivestar rating and a review. Really, really helps out the pod. And if you have Orioles questions, mailbag questions, you want to talk some ball, you have feedback on the podcast. I certainly appreciate it. You can always email me locked on orgmail.com. That’ll do it for today’s episode. We’ll be back tomorrow to talk Kade Povich. Until then, I’m Connor Nukem and this has been the Lockdown Orioles podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day.

The Baltimore Orioles are in the middle of a managerial search, and you can now add future Hall of Famer Albert Pujols to the list of candidates. Host Connor Newcomb breaks down how realistic Pujols would be for the Orioles, some updates on Brandon Hyde potentially getting a new job, and some other outside-the-box candidates.

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