ESPN's Buster Olney Weighs in on Albert Pujols as Seattle Mariners' Managerial Option

The Seattle Mariners are about to head into Week 3 of their managerial search and thus far, there are no widely-known candidates.

As a result, we've been left to speculate on possible fits for the group. I've said that I don't believe a trade for Cleveland Guardians manager Stephen Vogt is possible. We've asked Buster Olney of ESPN about the strengths of David Ross. And I've mentioned that I would at least entertain the idea of former St. Louis Cardinals stars Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina.

Obviously, both players come in with managerial experience on the Caribbean Winter Ball circuit, and both have experience in the World Baseball Classic, but they lack big-league staff experience, at least lots of it.

In Pujols's case, he also has a history with Jerry Dipoto, which could be a good thing or a bad thing. Dipoto helped sign Pujols to a lucrative deal with the Los Angeles Angels, but there was also friction at the end, as Pujols sided with manager Mike Scoscia and Dipoto ended up resigning as Angels general manager amid a power struggle.

We went to Olney again on the 'Refuse to Lose Territory' podcast to talk about Pujols, and that history.

"And I'm going to just give it my opinion based on what I heard from other people. You know, I probably wouldn't be as interested in Yadier Molina. I would be very interested in talking with Albert Pujols. I've had him on my podcast two or three times.

I think that whatever experience Jerry had with him back with the Angels, he's a different person. He's moved on. I remember having a conversation with him in the spring about being a star. Because the history of former stars becoming managers is not very good. Like Ted Williams, for example, struggled with that. Pete Rose, struggled with that. Because there's always that feeling of, 'well, why don't you just do it this way?'

I think Albert has such an analytical mind that he, and you know, in the end of his career, he went from being the superstar in the National League who competed for the MVP every year to being a part-time player and coming off the bench. And I think his perspective has shifted."

One of the best hitters of all-time, Pujols spent 22 years in the big leagues with the Cardinals, Angels and Los Angeles Dodgers. A surefire Hall of Famer when he's first eligible, Pujols hit .296 lifetime with 703 home runs and 2,218 RBIs. A three-time MVP, he was also an 11-time All-Star, a six-time Silver Slugger, a two-time Gold Glover, a batting champion and a Clemente Award winner.

We'll have another edition of the podcast on Monday morning, and Olney will join the show again on Thursday. He does that every week.