Pedro Gomez and Raul Ibanez explain why they believe players who are linked to PEDs should be considered for manager jobs in the MLB. (2:05)

In Miami, Barry Bonds leans against the batting cage every afternoon, working his hitting-coach magic. In San Diego, Mark McGwire has climbed the coaching ladder all the way to bench coach.

In Chicago, Manny Ramirez is an official Cubs "hitting consultant." In Houston, Roger Clemens is a "special assistant" and occasional Astros pitching instructor. In Colorado, Jason Giambi got a long look when the Rockies were searching for a manager four years ago.

And then, well, there's A-Rod, the most cherished Yankees "special adviser and instructor" of them all. (Or something like that.)

Once, people called them pariahs. Now it's beginning to occur to us that not too far down the road, we may be calling them something else:

Managers.

Mark McGwire is San Diego's bench coach. Barry Bonds is Miami's hitting coach. A-Rod is a "special adviser" for the Yankees. Which former All-Stars the public associates with steroids are most likely to become managers someday? Icon Sportswire, AP Photos

Wait. Could that really happen?

Heck, yeah. Of course it could. If those fabled members of the "PED gang" are so radioactive, how did they get hired to do these jobs? So what makes anyone think there would be some sort of stigma preventing them from getting a managing job?

"I think we're past that," said an official of one American League club. "We've let them in as coaches, right?"

Uh, right. So I did another one of my famous surveys of 14 executives across baseball last week and asked them whether they foresaw any of the six men above managing in the big leagues. Just three of them said no way. So while the writers continue to work to keep these men out of Cooperstown, the folks who run baseball aren't even keeping them out of the clubhouse.

"Rightly or wrongly," said a longtime National League executive, "the stigma of steroid use is fading."

"We're a very forgiving society," said another.

"If these guys want to manage," said a third, "the only thing that would stop them is not PEDs. It would be other factors."

Other factors? Oh yeah. Them. We heard a lot of talk about those other factors. And let's start with this factor. As yet another longtime exec put it, "managing is really hard."

"Egotistically, these guys might want to do it," he went on. "But once they see what the job really is, I don't know that they'd want to."

Know what? He's onto something. That little matter of "what the job really is" has kept players of their stature -- even ones with no PED ties -- from taking this plunge for years. With research help from ESPN Stats & Information's Sarah Langs, we can tell you all about that:

MVPs to Managers A glance at the greats of the past who went from superstars to skippers. 500-homer guys who managed Mel Ott

Eddie Mathews

Ted Williams

Frank Robinson 300-game winners who managed Kid Nichols

Pud Galvin

Christy Mathewson

Walter Johnson

Cy Young MVPs who managed (last 50 years) Kirk Gibson

Don Mattingly

Ryne Sandberg

Don Baylor

Pete Rose

Joe Torre

Frank Robinson

Ken Boyer

Maury Wills

• Four of these six men are in the 500-homer club. They might want to know that only four members of that club have ever managed, none of the four won a World Series, and the most recent (Frank Robinson) retired from playing 40 years ago.

• Clemens, of course, is in the 300-win club. Although five 300-game winners have managed, just one of them (Walter Johnson) threw a pitch in the past 100 seasons. None of those five won a World Series either, by the way.

• Four of these players on our list are also former MVPs. And at least there's precedent for that. Seven MVPs in the past half-century went on to manage. But the only MVP since 1949 to win a World Series as a manager was Joe Torre. And we should mention that Torre was in his 16th year of managing (and with his fourth team) when he finally won.

"So that's my question," said one of the execs quoted above. "Is someone on your list going to be patient enough to manage three or four different teams for 20 years? I don't think so."

And that's not all. Managing in the 21st century means talking to the media twice a day every day for more than seven months. It means handling nonstop second-guessing. It means taking orders from the front office on all sorts of stuff. It means often having no control over the makeup of your roster. And it means constantly dealing with one issue after another.

"Even the guys who have coached," said the same exec, "have it easier than the manager. They don't have to deal with: 'This guy is late. This guy is ticked. This guy's not playing hard.' And on and on. As a coach, you don't have to deal with any of that. So who would want to do this? Think about it. It's not like you're asking to be president of the United States. But when you've had the career these guys have had, why would you want to do this?"

It's an excellent question. And if none of these men ever manage, that's probably the biggest reason. They don't need the aggravation. But let's just say it's theoretically possible. Who is most likely, and who is least likely, to manage some day? After conducting this survey, I'd rank them this way (from most likely to least):

1. Jason Giambi

His former manager in Cleveland, Terry Francona, called him a "manager in waiting." And of the execs I spoke with who know him, they were unanimous that he has the personality, people skills, media skills and love of the daily grind to do it. One exec also spoke of his "humility," which comes in handy in this line of work. And if managing the human beings in the local clubhouse is a priority for the next team that interviews him, Giambi just might get hired.

"Remember," said one exec, "Cleveland kept him on their team all year a few years ago even though he couldn't play -- just so that he could impact their clubhouse."

2. Mark McGwire

Big Mac has spent more seasons as a big league coach (seven) than everyone else on this list combined. He was a hitting coach for three years in St. Louis, spent the next three years as the hitting coach in Los Angeles, and now serves as San Diego Padres manager Andy Green's bench coach. For what it's worth, Green has been ejected twice this season, so McGwire can say he has 12 action-packed innings of big league managing experience. The one thing people who know him worry about is that he might be too quiet by nature to handle all the media and leadership demands. But he has put in the time. He's extremely likable. And he has taken ownership of his PED past.

"Unlike all the others," said one exec who voted for him for this ranking, "he has admitted his use and accepted the consequences."

3. Barry Bonds

OK, we've now moved into the portion of these rankings where there's about as likely a chance of a Kardashian sister managing in the big leagues as there is of these next four guys managing. But humor us, all right? Why did I rank Bonds third? Because at least he has coached in the big leagues -- he's in the midst of his first season as the Marlins' hitting coach. And one thing he has proved is that he's a really bright man who can teach hitting and command any room he wants to command. But if you asked me if he'll even decide he wants to be the hitting coach again in Miami next year, I'd say no. And if you asked me to imagine him chatting amiably with the media for 200 hours a season, which is a job requirement of modern managing, I'd say hell no.

"Barry could manage," said one exec. "But is he going to want to manage and do everything he has to do to manage? I'm amazed he's still the batting coach there, to be honest."

4. Alex Rodriguez

As recently as this spring, Yankees manager Joe Girardi predicted his man A-Rod would manage someday "because I think he likes all the strategy of the game." And you have to admit this guy proved in his postseason TV gig that he has thought a lot about the game and can talk the language of baseball. But ... can he manage a major league baseball team? Wow. Didn't sense a lot of enthusiasm for that idea. Would an owner and GM trust him to say the right thing before and after every game for six months? Would his insecurities bubble over and flood the clubhouse the first time he got second-guessed for some bullpen move that went amiss? And above all, could he deal with all those strong personalities as a manager that he had so much trouble connecting with as a player?

"I think he'd be very good with the young players," said one AL exec. "But veteran players have always had a hard time relating to him. Maybe in four or five years, when that whole generation is pretty much out of the game, I could see it. But would he even want to? I have my doubts."

5. Roger Clemens

I'm not sure exactly how I decided to rank the Rocket over Manny. Work ethic, maybe? At least I got a vote from one exec that Clemens would "be an outstanding pitching coach." Is there any doubt about his thorough understanding of the art of pitching? Pretty much none. But beyond that? Who would hire him to manage a major league baseball team?

"He's the only one on your list," said one AL exec, "that I would definitively say won't [manage]."

6. Manny Ramirez

Would he remember to show up for work every day? Would he remember to write out the lineup card? Would he run spring training drills that taught his corner outfielders how to make diving cutoffs of throws by their center fielder? Would he teach his base stealers how to lead off second base and then steal first? Would he make it through an entire season without talking to the media? All of which is another way of saying Manny Pacquiao would be a better choice to manage your team than this Manny. But I'll say this: That has nothing to do with PEDs. He'd avoid this job strictly on merit.