Albert Pujols has decided to wrap up his major league career where it started, more than two decades ago. According to multiple reports, the three-time NL MVP and future Hall of Fame slugger signed a one-year, $2.5 million deal with the St. Louis Cardinals on Monday, and will retire after the 2022 campaign.
Pujols, 42, produced a Cooperstown-worthy career during his first 11 seasons. From 2001 to 2011, he slashed .328/.420/.617 with 2,073 hits, 445 home runs, 455 doubles, 1,329 RBI, and an 86.6 WAR. He parlayed that unrivaled success into a mammoth 10-year, $240 million deal with the Los Angeles Angels during the 2011 offseason. Pujols spent half of 2021 with the Los Angeles Dodgers in a part-time role, and he'll likely be asked to do the same with the Cardinals.
"You could tell St. Louis fans are going to be so excited to welcome him back. I think it's good for Albert," longtime baseball columnist Scott Miller explained to After Hours with Amy Lawrence on Tuesday. "I think it's going to be a really nice story for baseball, for St. Louis, and for Pujols. Especially beyond Pujols and St. Louis. He's reunited with a couple of old, salty veterans that he won a World Series with.
"Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright have already said, basically, it's going to be their last season. It's kind of like the three of them will now take that final victory lap together. The only thing that'll make it better is if St. Louis can win this year, or at least get back to the postseason after losing to the Dodgers in the wild card last year. But regardless, it's going to be a sentimental trip down memory lane with those three."
In a decade with the Angels, Pujols never won a playoff game -- his career in Anaheim consisted of just three ALDS games. A stark difference to his tenure with St. Louis, where he celebrated two World Series, five NL Central division titles, and reached the playoffs seven times. Pujols' career October numbers are also imposing -- in 86 games, he's hit .321 with 19 homers and 54 RBI.
Although the second half of his career pales in comparison to his production during the 2000s, Pujols will be remembered as one of the greatest sluggers in MLB history. He currently ranks fifth all-time in home runs (679), 12th in hits (3,301), fifth in doubles (672), third in RBI (2,150), and 21st in total WAR (99.6). By the end of this decade, Pujols will be a first-ballot Hall of Famer.
The entire MLB conversation between Miller and Lawrence can be accessed in the audio player above.
You can follow After Hours With Amy Lawrence on Twitter @ALawRadio and @AfterHoursCBS, and Tom Hanslin @TomHanslin.