Padres plan to interview Albert Pujols for manager position<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nPadres star right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr., 26, and shortstop Xander Bogaerts, 33, would join Machado in gaining a manager who lived the life of an everyday player on a lucrative long-term contract.<\/p>\n
But he could relate firsthand to many other Padres players.<\/p>\n
Take Padres center fielder Jackson Merrill, whose bright rookie season at age 21 spurred outside expectations of stardom.<\/p>\n
Pujols inflated expectations to absurd levels via a rookie year in which he, at 21, had 37 home runs, 47 doubles and a .329 batting average.<\/p>\n
Familiar with how unheralded players have to overcome preconceptions, he proved to be undaunted as a 13th-round pick.<\/p>\n
Accustomed to position changes, like one Machado someday may face, Pujols was moved from third base to first base after his first minor league season.<\/p>\n
Importantly, he understands the career phase Machado and Bogaerts face. The infielders are both under contract through age 40.<\/p>\n
Pujols was entering his age-32 season when he joined the Angels on a 10-year, $240-million contract in 2011.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, he would author one more big surprise \u2014 hitting 24 home runs at age 42 after joining the Cardinals for his final season.<\/p>\n
Machado carries extra importance to Padres teams and player payroll implications because his salary will soar some $14 million beyond that of Bogaerts to $39 million per year for the contract\u2019s final six years.<\/p>\n
![\"Albert](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/LDN-L-DODGERS-0924-KB82.jpg\")
Albert Pujols #5 of the St. Louis Cardinals watches his second home run of the night and his 700th of his career off relief pitcher Phil Bickford (not pictured) of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the fourth inning of a MLB baseball game at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on Friday, September 23, 2022. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News\/ SCNG)<\/p>\n
Fluent in English and Spanish, Pujols was born in the Dominican Republic, a country Machado has represented in the World Baseball Classic.<\/p>\n
The Dominican Republic was the homeland of Machado\u2019s grandfather, Francisco Nunez, a mentor who lived with the family when Manny was a boy in Miami. Honoring his grandfather, Machado carves \u201cFN\u201d into the dirt at Padres games.<\/p>\n
Dominican culture being what it is, Pujols would be family, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cDominican culture is very family-oriented,\u201d wrote Machado, who was born in Miami, in The Players\u2019 Tribune eight years ago. \u201cFamily is everything to us, and we treat all Dominicans as if they were family.\u201d<\/p>\n
If the next Padres manager is someone who walked for many years in baseball cleats bigger than his own and qualifies as family, here\u2019s predicting Machado would have an extra bounce to his step for a while.<\/p>\n
Originally Published: October 21, 2025 at 6:18 PM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If Albert Pujols becomes manager of the Padres, Manny Machado might feel like he\u2019s gone to baseball heaven.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":323524,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,1370,1266,3549,1306,7264,62,7289,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-323523","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"tag-san-diego-padres","15":"tag-sandiego","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-top-stories-sdut","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-united-states-of-america","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115417225218864609","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Former](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/AP19129690947846.jpg\")
Former Angels slugger Albert Pujols has interviewed for their managerial opening. (AP Photo\/Paul Sancya)<\/p>\n