Padres take big next step towards offering Albert Pujols manager job

The San Diego Padres aren’t just kicking the tires on Albert Pujols, they brought him back to San Diego for an in-person, second-round interview. The kind of face-to-face that only happens when a front office wants to look a candidate in the eye and talk about real plans, real staff, and real culture. Coming barely two weeks after Mike Shildt’s retirement reset the dugout, San Diego has moved this search from exploratory to decisive, and Pujols is clearly parked in the finalist lane. He even stepped away from MLB Network’s World Series coverage to be there, a small detail that underscores how serious both sides are about the fit. 

And there’s a clean timestamp on the escalation: on October 28, Pujols completed that second, in-person interview — a development first reported by the San Diego Union-Tribune’s Kevin Acee and echoed across the national rumor mill. While the Union-Tribune site is behind access restrictions for some readers, multiple outlets specifically attribute the news (and the date) to Acee’s reporting, which also noted that the Padres have narrowed the field to their preferred finalists. That puts Pujols squarely in the top tier as A.J. Preller shifts from Zoom screens to in-room whiteboards. 

Padres take major step toward hiring Albert Pujols as manager

From there, the shape of the candidacy comes into focus. Pujols has already cleared the first-round Zoom, the standard modern screening, and advanced to the deeper dive that tests vision, communication, and game-management philosophy. Internally, San Diego also sat down with bench coach Brian Esposito and pitching coach Ruben Niebla during round one, but among the names publicly associated with a second, in-person conversation, Pujols is the one showing daylight. The organization has kept a tight lid on the process, yet the breadcrumbs all point in his direction. 

Clubhouse buy-in matters here, and Pujols arrives with it. Fernando Tatis Jr. didn’t hedge when asked whether he’d like to play for Pujols, “Of course,” he replied, a simple affirmation that carries weight in a star-driven room.

Experience is the counterpoint, and the Padres are interrogating that honestly, which is exactly what second interviews are designed to do. Pujols has never managed in MLB, but his recent résumé is not an empty page: he guided Leones del Escogido to the 2024-25 LIDOM title and then the 2025 Caribbean Series crown, and he has already been tabbed to manage the Dominican Republic at the 2026 World Baseball Classic. Those are real dugout reps under real pressure; the question in San Diego’s room is how his game-planning, staff construction, and decision frameworks translate over 162. 

Amid all this, the field has been fluid. Pujols’ talks with the Angels ended over terms, and Baltimore’s search has moved along its own track with hiring Craig Albernaz, leaving San Diego as the clearest lane for his MLB managerial debut. The Padres, meanwhile, have kept other options warm, from internal voices to external names surfaced by national insiders, but momentum and calendar both favor a finish line here. 

The Padres have shifted from “could Pujols manage?” to “how would Pujols manage us?” If Preller and Pujols can align on staff, process, and priorities, and if the front office believes his leadership can unlock this roster’s ceiling, the next headline out of Petco could be more than an update. It could be a hire.