Albert Pujols Returns To The St. Louis Cardinals — And Leaves Behind His Afterthought Status

While Albert Pujols has a chance at joining the super-select 700-homer club this season, he’s not going to rediscover the form of his youth as a part-time player at age 42, which means there will be no run at 50 homers, no shooting past the 100-RBI mark and no flirtation with a Triple Crown.

But at least he won’t end his career as an afterthought.

Such a thought might sound a bit hyperbolic, given we just noted how Pujols has a real shot at becoming only the fourth player to ever hit 700 home runs and is the active leader — by a Secretariat-type margin — in almost major hitting category. (Alas, his 16 triples — none since 2010 — leave him 66 behind the unsigned Dexter Fowler, while his 116 steals have him 201 behind Elvis Andrus)

But until this week — when Pujols announced this would be his final season upon signing a one-year deal with the Cardinals on Monday — Pujols had spent most of the last decade with the Angels and Dodgers as the most anonymous sure-fire Hall of Famer in all of sports.

It’s not that Pujols was bad from 2012 through 2021, a span in which he ranked 15th in the majors with 234 homers and sixth with 821 RBIs. But any numbers are going to pale in comparison when stacked against the 10-year period from 2002 through 2011, a stretch in which Pujols won the decade-spanning Triple Crown — his .328 average, 408 homers and 1,199 RBIs from 2002 through 2011 all led the majors, as did his 1,179 runs and 408 doubles — while winning three MVPs and posting an OPS of 1.040, second only to Barry Bonds, who stopped playing after the 2007 season.

Pujols’ solid counting numbers came with a .256 average, which dropped his career average from .328 to .297. And with the two-time Gold Glove winner’s defense in dramatic decline, he registered 12.8 WAR with the Angels, which, upon his release last May 13, tied him for the 129th most in baseball since 2012. Among the long-retired or inactive players who have collected more WAR since 2012 are David Wright (14.9), Colby Rasmus (14.2), Zack Cozart (13.8) and Ian Desmond (13.6)

And Pujols put up the majority of those numbers while being overshadowed on his own team by a pair of generational talents. Fellow first-ballot future Hall of Famer Mike Trout ranked in the top 10 in all three Triple Crown categories from 2012 through 2021 while posting a major league-best 1.011 OPS and winning three MVPs. The unicorn-like Shohei Ohtani won the MVP last season after collecting 46 homers and 100 RBIs at the plate and going 9-2 with a 3.18 ERA in 23 starts.

After being released by the Angels, Pujols latched on with Los Angeles’ other, more glamorous team, where he was arguably even more of an afterthought surrounded by Dodgers teammates that included three former MVP winners and four former Cy Young Award winners (these totals include Clayton Kershaw, who won both awards).

Pujols indicated after last season he wanted to continue playing, which opened up the possibility of him continuing to ride almost unnoticed into the sunset with the Dodgers as a late-inning bench weapon or heading somewhere else in search of guaranteed at-bats as a designated hitter in pursuit of 700 homers (he’s 21 shy).

The Cardinals offer some kind of compromise — he won’t be a full-time player, but with the designated hitter now implemented in the NL, he should get regular at-bats there against left-handers after hitting .294 with 13 homers and 34 RBIs in 136 at-bats against southpaws last year — and a chance to join some fellow baseball icons in taking a career-ending victory lap with the franchise with whom he is most identified.

Indeed, if all goes according to plan, Pujols could have the most fulfilling final lap of a future Hall of Famer returning home since Fergie Jenkins, who went 20-24 with a 3.65 ERA over 384 2/3 innings for the Cubs in his final two big league seasons in 1982-93. Jenkins wore a Cubs hat into the Hall of Fame in 1991.

Of course, there’s no guarantee things go as smoothly as Pujols and the Cardinals hope. Ken Griffey Jr. was carried off the field by his Mariners teammates following the 2009 finale but came back and hit .184 in 98 at-bats in 2010 before retiring in June. Tom Glavine returned to the Braves in 2008 after five fitful seasons with the Mets but posted a 5.54 ERA in 13 starts before his elbow gave out. Reggie Jackson hit .220 with 15 homers in 115 games with the Athletics in 1987, the same season Phil Niekro went 7-13 with a 5.90 ERA for the Indians and Blue Jays before he retired following one ceremonial start for the Braves on Sept. 27.

But at least Pujols won’t be one of those sure-fire Hall of Famers who spends his final season in a uniform with which he otherwise has no association, unlike Vladimir Guerrero (Orioles in 2011), Jim Thome (also the Orioles, in 2012), Randy Johnson (Giants in 2009), Pedro Martinez (Phillies in 2009) or Rickey Henderson (Dodgers in 2003), just to name a handful of Hall of Famers whose careers ended this century.

After the last decade, that sure beats the alternative for Pujols, who gets to end his career where he started it while reminding people just how out-of-nowhere spectacular he was for the Cardinals, who selected him in the 13th round of the 1999 draft out of a Missouri junior college. By returning home, Pujols ensures there’s no chance a player who arrived as an afterthought — he batted sixth in his big league debut, in between Placido Polanco and Mike Matheny — will exit as one.