They met in Jupiter, Florida, in the spring of 2001.
Plácido Polanco was already a Cardinal — a contact hitter who never complained, a pro’s pro who could play anywhere on the dirt. Albert Pujols was a 21-year-old non-roster invitee out of Class-A Peoria who didn’t even have a place to live. Polanco handed him a key.
Players from the Dominican Republic line up with President Leonel Fernández and Hall of Famer Juan Marichal before the Cubs–Cardinals game in St. Louis, Oct. 3, 1999. Plácido Polanco stands first on the left for St. Louis. (AP Photo/Bill Boyce)
By April, Pujols was batting third for Tony La Russa.
Albert Pujols and Plácido Polanco high-five as St. Louis Cardinals teammates during the 2001 season. (AP Photo)
By July 2002, Polanco was gone — traded to Philadelphia with Bud Smith, the rookie left-hander who’d thrown a no-hitter just ten months earlier, in the deal that brought Scott Rolen to St. Louis.
Albert Pujols and Plácido Polanco high-five as St. Louis Cardinals teammates during the 2001 season. (AP Photo)
The clubhouse Polanco left behind still buzzed with names like Edgar Rentería, Miguel Cairo, and Fernando Tatís Sr. — a multilingual bridge between generations.
That trade built the modern Cardinals cathedral: Rolen at third, Pujols at first, and a championship altar waiting to be blessed.
In 2006, Polanco led Detroit to the World Series — hitting .529 in the ALCS beside Magglio Ordóñez and rookie Justin Verlander — only to go hitless as Pujols, Molina, Eckstein, and Taguchi raised St. Louis’s 10th banner.
Five years later, his 102-win Phillies — Halladay, Hamels, Utley, Howard, Rollins — lost 1–0 to Chris Carpenter and Pujols’ Cardinals in the 2011 NLDS.
St. Louis rode that game into the Freese miracle, Berkman’s resurrection swing, and an 11th championship.
Twice, Pujols and the Cardinals won rings through Polanco’s teams.
There’s no bitterness when Polanco tells it.
“Albert baptized my son,” he once said. “He’s my compadre.”
The man who took his job became family — an unshakable link that still feels biblical.
That bond began years earlier, when Polanco recalled meeting Pujols as a raw minor leaguer in 2000.
In a 2022 appearance on Abriendo El Podcast, Polanco told the story with a laugh and a trace of awe:
“Firmó… y el jugó de una b en la clase media… Yo estaba en grandes ligas… y cuando yo le di la mano a ese muchacho allá, casi me la rompe la mano.”
“He’d just signed and was playing in A-ball. I was already in the big leagues… and when I shook that kid’s hand, he almost broke it. I thought, this guy’s different.”
A year later came the moment that sealed their friendship forever:
“Yo le dije, ‘Mira, yo tengo un apartamento, quédate conmigo.’ Y ahí se quedó conmigo entero spring training.”
“I told him, ‘Look, I’ve got an apartment — stay with me.’ And he spent that whole spring training living with me.”
From that apartment in Jupiter grew a brotherhood that’s lasted a quarter century.
Since retiring, their paths have circled back. Pujols joined the Dodgers, returned to St. Louis for his farewell tour, then stepped into front-office work, TV, and managing winter-ball in the Dominican Republic.
Polanco, ever the craftsman, joined the Dodgers’ player-development staff in 2019 and later reunited with Pujols on the staff of Leones del Escogido, guiding the club to a LIDOM title and Caribbean Series crown.
Then came the national call: the 2026 World Baseball Classic staff announcement — Albert Pujols, manager; Plácido Polanco, bench coach.
The same two men from that Jupiter apartment, now entrusted with leading a roster that could feature Sandy Alcántara, Framber Valdez, Cristian Javier, Luis Severino, and Emmanuel Clase — the next great Dominican rotation, the next verse in their shared scripture.
And now, suddenly, another collision.
Just this week, Pujols met with the Los Angeles Angels about becoming their next manager. The same franchise that once released him now wants him back — halo over his head, clubhouse in need of revival.
If the Angels job happens, he’d become one of the rare superstar players to step directly into a big-league managerial seat.
But to do so, he may have to hand off the Dominican post before March.
So here we are again — a crossroads that feels preordained.
Will Polanco follow him to Anaheim, joining his old compadre in the majors once more?
Or will he stay home, carrying the Dominican torch that Pujols lit, guiding the next generation from the same soil that raised them both?
Maybe that’s the real miracle — that two men who began as roommates in spring training still mirror each other’s lives two decades later, each chasing grace in his own dugout.
One with a halo.
One with the flag of Quisqueya stitched to his heart.
Both still trying, in their own way, to serve the game that first handed them a key.
