Dodgers Rumors: Albert Pujols could become manager of LA's rival

On Tuesday, the Angels dismissed manager Ron Washington after two seasons on the job, though his second year was cut short due to health concerns. Anaheim declined to pick up his club option and vowed that their search would commence immediately.

Just a day later, Sam Blum, Katie Woo, and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported that future first-ballot Hall of Famer and short-term Dodgers infielder Albert Pujols was believed to be Angels owner Arte Moreno's favorite candidate to take over Washington's old role.

Pujols signed a major league deal with the Dodgers in May 2021, after being DFA'd by the Angels following 24 games with a .198 average and .622 OPS. Pujols recovered his power with the Dodgers and hit the 700th home run of his career at Chavez Ravine, but it was still clear that his career was on its last legs.

He signed a final deal in 2022 to return to the Cardinals and did enjoy a respectable season before retiring with the club. Since then, he's stayed close to the Angels as a special assistant, worked as an MLB Network analyst, and had a yearlong stint as the manager of the Leones del Escogido in the Dominican Professional Baseball League.

Albert Pujols rumored to be Dodgers' rival Angels' top choice to take over managerial job

Managing a baseball team tends to be a mostly thankless job — or at least comes with far more criticism and scrutiny than praise — but the Angels make it particularly tough on their skippers.

Moreno is such a hapless owner who is so unwilling to either sell his team or invest properly to make them better that the Angels have stagnated for past decade. Let's not forget that he had the opportunity to re-sign Shohei Ohtani and declined. Even Anaheim's regular season success at the beginning of Moreno's tenure was more thanks to GM Bill Stoneman, who was already in the role when Moreno took over.

Why Pujols would want to drink from such a blatantly poisoned chalice is a little confounding, as is his close relationship to the club since retirement despite his own disappointing time there. (Maybe he just likes Southern California more than St. Louis, which no one would really be able to blame him for.)

Hiring Pujols won't make the Angels any more or less intimidating unless Moreno actually gives his executives license to spend on the right players in the offseason — but we all know that's probably not going to happen.