Albert Pujols

Albert Pujols Ends His Career in Final Game With the St. Louis Cardinals

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Albert Pujols ended a legendary 22-year career this past Saturday night in his final game with the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League wild-card series sweep against the Philadelphia Phillies. 

 

Earlier this season, Pujols announced that he was retiring and stayed adamant about the decision even though he had a strong performance during the second half of the season. 

 

He reached the 700-home run mark on September 23rd, joining Hank Aaron (755), Babe Ruth (763), and Barry Bonds (762) in the MLB’s “exclusive 700 Homer club.” His final at-bat against the Phillies was a sharp “dinger” in which he hit to left field.

 

During his career with the Cardinals, his batting average was .328 with a 1.037 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, 445 home runs, 2,073 hits, 455 doubles, and 1,329 RBIs from 2001 to 2011. In addition to these statistics, Pujols won three NL most valuable player awards. Also, he helped lead the Cardinals to World Series titles in 2006 and 2011. 

 

Before 2012, he signed a 10-year, $240 million deal with the Angels, but suffered many lower-body injuries. He briefly played with the Los Angeles Angels as well; hitting at .256 with a .758 OPS, 222 home runs, and 783 RBIs in 1,181 games. Later on, he was released from the Angels in May 2021. 

 

His performance derailed and he did not have any playoff wins at this point in his career. Pujols played for the Los Angeles Dodgers for a brief five months in an attempt to “will” his way back to the game. He was successful and saw better numbers within a shorter amount of time.

 

In his final interview with Frank Cusumano, Pujols mentioned that he was grateful for the opportunity to play with the Cardinals again and “all glory goes to God.” He seemed very calm and at peace during the interview. I’m honestly happy to see that he is not completely “done” with baseball.  

 

His personal-services contract with the Angels is actually with the team and not the owner (of the Angels), Arte Moreno. Moreno plans on selling the team. Pujols left a great mark on the Angels, as the general manager, Perry Minasian mentioned that the team definitely wanted Pujols to fulfill the personal-services contract. Minasian said that Pujols would be “a great asset” to the organization as a whole. 

 

You may be wondering, what is the personal-services contract in the MLB? Since Pujols has agreed to abide by the contract, he is not allowed to be affiliated with the Cardinals in any way. There are possibilities of becoming a hitting instructor, Minor league mentor, or even a motivational speaker at spring training. Either way, Pujols will “serve his time,” and be able to continue in baseball from “the other side.”

 

Despite the disappointing ending to his career, I think that he will be a great asset to the Angels organization as well. He has always been very knowledgeable about baseball and has always been a “class act.” Pujols has made headlines for more of his “off the field” work than his actual performance in the game.

 

This is the end of his career, but a new beginning that will be very bright. Job well done, Pujols.  

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