A St. Louis icon is heading home for what could be his final Major League campaign. Albert Pujols is rejoining the Cardinals on a 1 year $2.5M contract for the 2022 season. The deal is currently pending a physical.
Pujols first broke into the majors with the Cardinals as a 21 year old in 2001. He would go on to have 11 highly productive seasons with St. Louis, winning 3 NL MVP awards, and two World Series titles along the way.
The native of Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic would sign a massive 10 year, $240M contract with the Angels in 2012. Pujols would go on to play 10 seasons in Anaheim before joining the Dodgers in May of 2021.
The 42 year old heads back to St. Louis to rejoin former teammates Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright. The three players all enjoyed tremendous success with the Cardinals, and their reunion could make for an interesting farewell tour at season’s end should all three decide to retire simultaneously.
Over the course of his 21 year career, Pujols has accumulated 679 home runs, 2,150RBIs, 1872 runs scored, while sporting a .297 average and .919OPS. While the 10x All-Star no longer carries the same pop in his bat as he used to, that may not matter much for his tenure in St. Louis. Universally adored by the Cardinals faithful, Pujols figures to play a part time role at best in 2022.
The 6x Silver Slugger will likely DH against left-handed pitchers this season, while providing the Cardinals with a veteran bat off the bench for pinch hit situations. With Paul Goldschmidt firmly entrenched as St. Louis’ everyday first baseman, fans figured it was a long shot for the club to reunite with one of its greatest players this season, even if there was a mutual desire to do so.
However with the implementation of the universal DH in the latest CBA, suddenly the possibility of bringing “one of their own” back into the fold became a reality. St. Louis currently has the 2nd best World Series odds in the NL Central at +2000, trailing only the Milwaukee Brewers who are coming in at +1500.
The Cardinals open their 2022 campaign against the Pittsburgh Pirates on April 7th.
Photo: Dave Herholz. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.