Legendary slugger and future first-ballot Corridor of Famer Albert Pujols has been named supervisor of the Dominican Republic workforce for the 2026 World Baseball Basic, he informed reporters at Angels spring coaching Sunday.
Pujols, 45, retired from enjoying following a standout 2022 marketing campaign with the St. Louis Cardinals through which he joined the 700 residence run membership and authored one of many nice closing seasons by any hitter. Since stepping away from his enjoying profession, Pujols has waded into managerial waters. Most notably, he not too long ago guided Leones del Escogido to the highest of the 2024-25 Dominican Winter League after which a win over Mexico’s Charros de Jalisco within the Caribbean Sequence. Pujols has additionally lengthy had MLB managerial aspirations, confirming as a lot on Sunday.
“Every time the chance comes, if there’s something knocking this yr or subsequent yr, I imply, why not?” he stated.
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A local of Santo Domingo within the Dominican Republic, Pujols performed for the D.R. WBC workforce within the 2006 event. The D.R. is coming off a disappointing displaying within the final WBC in 2023, throughout which they went 2-2 and did not advance past pool play. The Dominican Republic gained the WBC in 2013 for the primary and solely time. Japan, which has gained the WBC 3 times, will go into the 2026 event as defending champions.
The 20-team 2026 WBC shall be held from March 5 by March 17 of subsequent yr. The Dominican Republic shall be a part of Pool D, which additionally contains Venezuela, the Netherlands, Israel, and a fifth workforce to be decided by way of qualifier play. The highest two groups in every pool will advance to the quarterfinals.
The disappointments of 2023 however, the Dominican Republic continues to be very a lot a baseball powerhouse with a wealthy assortment of expertise from which they’ll assemble a WBC roster. They will little doubt enter the 2026 event as one of many favorites.
