The Anaheim Angels have designated Albert Pujols for assignment. It’s possible someone will pick him up and give him a go, but doing so would likely only delay the inevitable. Pujols hasn’t been good for a long time. It’s time for him to retire. But what a career he had.
In 2001, Pujols made the Cardinals out of spring training and promptly turned in an historic rookie season. Pujols amassed 7.2 fWAR that year, a total that trailed only Barry Bonds, Randy Johnson, Sammy Sosa, Jason Giambi, Luis Gonzalez, Alex Rodriguez, Bret Boone, and Larry Walker. Among qualified hitters, he was 12th in wRC+. It was the start of a decade of Pujols.
Over the first ten years of Albert Pujols’s career, he totaled 77.3 fWAR. Next in line over that stretch was A-Rod, at 70.0, but behind him you have to go down to Bonds, Roy Halladay, and Ichiro, all of whom totaled between 53 and 55. Pujols’s wRC+ wasn’t the best in the majors among qualified hitters over that stretch, but it was the second-best, trailing only Bonds. The decade was so good that if you expand the sample to the sum of his career, from Opening Day 2001 through yesterday’s games, Pujols was the most valuable baseball player over that stretch by more than eight wins, and that’s despite not posting a positive WAR number since 2016.
As Pujols has gotten older, he’s become better-known for his contract and his anchor-like effect on the Angels lineup than for his prior greatness. Such is life when you are a present concern. But if this is the end for Pujols in the major leagues, it allows us to look at more than just his present-day value. It allows us to remember that first decade, and the six declining but still solid years that followed before he finally tipped over the replacement-player line.
What’s next for Pujols? One would imagine that eventually, he’ll sign a one-day contract with the Cardinals and retire with them (I’m not positive about this, but I’m curious if the part of his Angels contract that leaves him tied to them for ten years after its completion will be nullified by the DFA). Regardless, he’s probably going to be around St. Louis in some capacity, where even two months ago his foundation was working to help vaccinate adults with Down Syndrome against the coronavirus. Between now and then, it’s hard to say what will happen. Again, someone might pick him up and give him a shot, but doing so would be more a publicity move than a move at winning, and it’s hard to believe Pujols would want to be turned into a sideshow.
Questions will linger over the years about Pujols’s real age, and like any baseball player in the steroid era, some will be suspicious that he wasn’t “real.” Over time, I’d imagine those questions will fade. The Anaheim years will be forgotten, condensed into an end-of-career blip. The St. Louis years will be remembered. And what a memory those will be.
