HOUSTON (AP) — Albert Pujols will interview to be the next Houston Astros manager, a person familiar with the scheduling told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
The person spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity because the Astros had not publicly released their list of candidates.
The three-time MVP and two-time World Series champion will be interviewed later this week, the person said. Former Astros catcher and current New York Yankees bench coach Brad Ausmus is also a candidate for the job, according to the person.
The team is looking for a replacement for Joe Espada, whose contract was not renewed after Houston went 81-81 in the regular season to win the AL West but was swept by the Chicago White Sox in the Wild Card Series.
Houston's plan to interview Pujols comes days after the team hired former St. Louis Cardinals executive Randy Flores as general manager. Flores had been serving as St. Louis’ assistant general manager of amateur and pro acquisition. He joined the Cardinals’ front office as director of scouting in 2015 and spent eight seasons (2019-26) as an assistant GM with the club.
The 46-year-old Pujols, who retired at the end of the 2022 after 22 big league seasons, interviewed to be the manager of the Los Angeles Angels and San Diego Padres last offseason.
He was hired in 2023 as a special assistant with the Angels as part of a 10-year personal services contract. Pujols also managed the Dominican Republic to a third-place finish in this year's World Baseball Classic.
Pujols spent 12 seasons with the Cardinals and was a longtime nemesis of the Astros. He hit perhaps the most famous home run in their ballpark’s history when he crushed a three-run shot with two outs in the ninth inning to propel St. Louis to a 5-4 win in Game 5 of the 2005 NL Championship Series. The Astros went on to win Game 6 and advance to their first World Series.
Pujols left the Cardinals after the 2012 season when he signed a $240 million, 10-year contract with the Angels. He was released by the Angels in 2021 and spent the rest of that season with the Dodgers before playing his final season back with the Cardinals.
He’s an 11-time All-Star and six-time Silver Slugger Award winner who led the league in home runs twice and won the NL batting title in 2003.
He finished his with 703 home runs and 2,218 RBIs and 3,384 hits, which ranks 10th.
See AP’s full MLB coverage here
FILE - Dominican Republic manager Albert Pujols stands on the field during the third inning of a World Baseball Classic game against the Netherlands, Sunday, March 8, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell,File)
CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov 4, 2026--
Fingerprint, the industry leader in device intelligence, today announced expanded bot detection capabilities that identify traffic inferred to be undeclared AI agents, including Meta's Muse, Spear Street's Instinct and xAI's Grok Bot. As more AI agents operate without identifying themselves, Fingerprint provides browser-level visibility to recognize previously unidentified automated traffic, distinguish it from legitimate human activity and enable businesses to determine which interactions to allow, limit or block.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261104999557/en/
The AI Agents Operating Without Declaring Their Identity
More than half of all web traffic in 2026 is no longer human, which is largely due to AI agents acting on behalf of consumers or enterprises. While industry standards such as Web Bot Auth were designed to let AI agents cryptographically prove their identity, a growing wave of prominent agents are choosing to operate undeclared or are actively shifting away from signed traffic:
“More AI agents are visiting websites without disclosing their identity, and some that used to, like Grok Bot, have stopped,” said Dan Pinto, CEO and Co-founder of Fingerprint. “That lack of transparency is already a widespread issue: Fingerprint’s recent report found that 79% of financial institutions have caught a malicious bot or scraper posing as an AI assistant. Fingerprint can identify traffic inferred to be Muse, Instinct and Grok Bot without any assistance from their developers, giving enterprises the ability to uncover previously undetected AI agent activity and make informed decisions about which traffic to allow, limit or block.”
How Fingerprint’s Bot Detection Smart Signal Identifies Humans, AI Agents and Bots
Legacy bot management tools force businesses into either blocking all automated traffic, which risks turning away paying customers’ AI assistants, or allowing unrecognized automation, which exposes login flows and payment methods to abuse. Fingerprint checks the network edge and/or the browser to reveal what is behind every visit: a human user, a known automated bot, an AI agent that cryptographically proves who it is, an undeclared AI agent that hides its identity or a spoofed bot masking its identity.
With Fingerprint’s Bot Detection Smart Signal, security and fraud teams can:
Availability and Resources
Detection for Muse, Instinct and Grok Bot is available today through Fingerprint Bot Detection via the Fingerprint JS Agent, Server API, Rules Engine and the Fingerprint MCP Server.
For more information, read the technical deep dives on detecting Muse, Instinct and Grok Bot. To learn more about how Fingerprint’s tech works, explore tracked bots and AI agents in the Fingerprint Bot Directory and test live detection in the Fingerprint Playground.
About Fingerprint
Fingerprint detects the intent of human and agentic visitors. Our device intelligence platform identifies over 1 billion unique devices every month and processes hundreds of signals to help fraud teams distinguish trusted visitors from bad actors at speed and scale. Over 6,000 companies, including innovators like Plaid, Booking.com, Dropbox, Trustpilot and Checkout.com, use Fingerprint every day to recognize high-risk activity in real time, prevent fraud attacks and deliver frictionless user experiences. Learn more at fingerprint.com.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Why are AI agents hiding their identities instead of using Web Bot Auth?
Many websites rely on legacy security rules that automatically block any non-human traffic. To avoid being blocked while executing tasks for their users, the companies behind agents like Muse and Instinct design them to mimic human browsers, suppress standard automation flags and omit cryptographic signatures. Additionally, some agents that previously signed their requests, such as Grok Bot, stopped.
How does Fingerprint distinguish between "signed" or "verified" AI agents and "inferred" AI agents?
Fingerprint maintains a strict technical distinction based on cryptographic proof. Signed and verified AI agents cryptographically sign their outgoing HTTP requests, providing tamper-proof confirmation of their provider’s identity, while inferred AI agents do not present a cryptographic signature. Fingerprint identifies traffic inferred to be a specific agent by analyzing browser, device, network and behavioral signals, and classifies each determination with a high, medium or low confidence score.
How should fraud and security teams handle an undeclared AI agent?
Instead of blocking or allowing all agents, teams can use Fingerprint to match their policy to the sensitivity of the action. For example, they can rate-limit undeclared agent sessions so an automated assistant cannot refresh or transact faster than a human user. They can also trigger step-up authentication or explicit user verification when an undeclared agent attempts to access sensitive account settings or authentication flows. Conversely, they can allow low-risk browsing or standard purchases to proceed while inspecting Smart Signals to block coordinated abuse.
Fingerprint Expands Bot Detection to Uncover Hidden Muse, Instinct and Grok Bot Traffic as AI Agents Increasingly Conceal Their Identities
