ST. LOUIS (KMOX) -- Albert Pujols is coming home.
The Cardinals and Pujols are in agreement on a one-year contract for the 2022 season worth a reported $2.5 million dollars, bringing the 3-time MVP back to where his legendary career began in 2001.
The deal was first reported by Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
The mutual interest between Pujols and his former club was first mentioned as "increased conversations" with the Cardinals, according to an earlier report from Katie Woo in The Athletic on Sunday night.
Pujols, 42, spent his first 11 seasons in a Cardinals uniform. During that time, he won two world championships (2006, 2011), won three MVP's (2005, 2008, 2009) and was a 9-time All-Star (2001, 2003-2010).
The six-time Silver Slugger led the National League in home runs twice (2009, 2010) and was the NL batting champion in 2003. He also pulled in two Gold Glove awards at first base (2006, 2010).
Pujols signed with the Angels after the 2011 season, agreeing to a 10-year, $254 million deal. He spent most of those ten seasons in Anaheim before being designated for assignment early in the 2021 season. Pujols later signed a one-year deal with the Dodgers.
He most recently played in the Dominican Winter League in his native country.
In St. Louis, Pujols could serve as a designated hitter as well as a righthanded bat off the bench, primarily against lefthanded pitching. A longtime teammate of Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright, he would become another invaluable resource as a mentor to younger players.
Pujols has a place in history as one of the greatest hitters of his generation. Only Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron and Babe Ruth hit 700 career home runs -- Pujols is 21 shy of that mark. His 3,301 hits are 12th on the all-time list, ahead of Willie Mays.
He was drafted in the 13th round of the 1999 MLB Draft, climbing the minor league ranks quickly to make the Opening Day roster in 2001. That season, he achieved his first of ten consecutive seasons with at least 30 home runs and 100 RBI.
The Cardinals have not announced the deal with Pujols, which is pending the outcome of a physical.
Speaking on KMOX's Sports on a Sunday Morning, Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak described the team's needs at DH: "Your hope is that they can they can play in the field, and we think we accomplished that with Corey (Dickerson). The other part of this is -- the nice thing about having a DH -- is then you can have somebody like a Nolan (Arenado) or Goldy (Paul Goldschmidt) take a day off, still be in the lineup, but not have to play in the field. It gives you a lot more 'plug and play' opportunities with your players. Hopefully we can take advantage of that."
As it turns out, they'll have the ability to lean on one of the greatest players to ever wear the 'Birds on the Bat' -- a surefire, first-ballot Hall of Famer -- to provide that protection.
No. 5 is coming home.