Is there room on the St. Louis Cardinals roster for an Albert Pujols reunion?
It’s a terrible idea except for all the ways in which it’s a wonderful idea.
Albert Pujols was designated for assignment by the Los Angeles Angels on Thursday, the team announced. Barring an unexpected waiver claim or trade, Pujols will be released to free agency in seven days, with the Angels owing the balance due on the last year of the 10 year, $240 million contract he signed following the 2011 season.
Retirement is a possibility, but not a certainty. Pujols has five home runs for the Angels this season, and at 41 years old, still (relatively) rarely strikes out and makes hard, screamingly hard contact from time to time.
He doesn’t really get around well anymore. He hasn’t for years, really. He plays only one position — first base — and even that has been sparing as he’s moved into a role as a part-time designated hitter.
Surely there’s no room for a nostalgia project on the active roster of the 2021 St. Louis Cardinals.
Except there is.
The concession off the top must be that there is no pure baseball rationale for the Cardinals to pursue a reunion with Pujols. There are any number of players in the system, many of whom have already appeared for this team this season, who could replicate the offense he brings and vastly improve upon the defense he doesn’t.
Paul Goldschmidt is going to play first base every day for the Cardinals unless he’s physically unable to do so. And if that unfortunate circumstance were to arise, there’s fleetingly little evidence that Pujols can handle the position anymore.
A neutral observer might peruse the numbers and determine Pujols is cooked, not worth more than a fleeting moment’s consideration.
But, come on. It’s Albert Pujols.
With Major League Baseball rosters now permanently expanded to 26 players, the Cardinals have spent much of this season with an extra spot on the bench occupied by a right-handed bat with designs only on pinch hitting and rare spot starts.
Lane Thomas was recalled from Memphis on Thursday for precisely that purpose. Austin Dean and John Nogowski have also filled the role with middling-to-poor results.
In many ways, Matt Carpenter presents as a left-handed mirror to present day Pujols, though he remains a much stronger option in the field and is likely a somewhat weaker option at the plate. Carrying one such player can present a challenge; carrying two would act as a multiplier.
A spot on the 40-man roster is also not a significant obstacle. Perhaps there would be some shuffling of players on the injured list or some tense moments as someone is exposed to waivers, but a fringe reliever’s roster spot won’t be the variable which determines whether a Pujols reunion is possible.
Money, too, presents no object here. Pujols was set to receive $30 million in salary from the Angels this season, and that money’s coming to him no matter what. Assuming he reaches free agency, he could likely be had for a song of a song, a prorated slice of the league minimum, subsidized by Angels owner Arte Moreno’s largesse.
Even if the Cardinals, in an alternate universe, were forced to carry the full freight, the frenzy of economic activity that would be whipped up by a generational baseball hero’s return home would seem to project a substantial windfall.
Pujols’s first return as a visiting player in 2019 begat an atmosphere that exceeded — by far — the energy felt in that year’s postseason. When he hammered a home run to the visiting bullpen on that Saturday in June, it was his 111th in the ballpark that opened in 2006.
He has 110 in his career at Angel Stadium.
One more home run in St. Louis, just a notch ahead. Imagine how five or 10 more would feel.
Imagine a stadium that’s destined to increase in capacity and fill with ever more fans throughout the summer, hungry for Cardinals baseball which they’ve been largely denied for two calendar years.
That weekend of moments in 2019 seemed likely to be the last page in a beloved storybook. Eight years removed from his departure, the scars of the breakup had healed, and Pujols spent the weekend rightfully reaping the rewards of the thrills he brought baseball fans in St. Louis for a full decade.
Stories don’t have to be so predictable.
Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright are each playing the 2021 season on one year contracts, and each knows he’s nearing the end of an illustrious career which will see them etched in Cardinals lore. They rushed into each other’s arms at the end of the 2006 World Series, young players with the world in front of them, stories still to be written.
Albert Pujols was there too, meeting them from first base. More of his pages had been filled out but the ending wasn’t any more preordained for him than it was for the pitcher and catcher.
Imagine writing the three of them together, finished on the same page.
That, alone, would make it all worth it.
This story was originally published May 6, 2021 at 2:37 PM.
