A family reunion: St. Louis Cardinals bringing back Albert Pujols on 1-year contract
One of the greatest players in St. Louis Cardinals franchise history has reached an agreement to return to the club in a season already set to be defined by the celebration of legacies.
Albert Pujols, who won three National League Most Valuable Player awards and two World Series championships with the Cardinals from 2001 to 2011, has agreed to a one-year contract, per multiple media reports.
Katie Woo of The Athletic reported Sunday afternoon the sides had made recent progress in negotiations, and Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported late Sunday the deal had been finalized.
Pujols, 42, hit 445 home runs in his first 11 seasons with the Cardinals. In 10 subsequent seasons with the Los Angeles Angels and half of one season with the Los Angeles Dodgers, that career total increased to 679, leaving him just 21 home runs shy of becoming only the fourth player in history to reach 700 home runs, following Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, and Babe Ruth.
The Cardinals figure to use Pujols primarily as a designated hitter, and the introduction of that rule to the National League on a full-time basis made a fit possible in 2022 that did not exist in 2021, when Pujols was released by the Angels in May. He rebounded to a .254 batting average and .460 slugging percentage in 204 plate appearances with the Dodgers, used selectively as a pinch hitter and substitute against primarily left-handed pitchers.
With Paul Goldschmidt cemented at first base, opportunities in the field for Pujols will be few and far between. Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said as recently as Sunday morning that the club would continue to seek at bats for young right-handed slugger Juan Yepez, who now figures instead to be a prime option for Triple-A Memphis and a potential call up as necessary during the season.
The addition of Pujols serves as a mirror of sorts to that of Corey Dickerson, signed early in camp to provide pop from the left side of the plate in a similar hitter’s role.
Emotional coda
More than that, though, Pujols’s homecoming is the sort of emotional coda to a career that proved too strong a temptation for either side to avoid. His first return to Busch Stadium in 2019 as a member of the Angels included raucous, extended standing ovations for each plate appearance, and was capped off by a home run against new teammate Dakota Hudson that brought the past-capacity crowd to demand a curtain call from a visiting player – a sight nearly unimaginable, even in baseball-crazy St. Louis.
His return with the Dodgers last season provided another dramatic blast which seemed destined to be the last of countless great moments provided by Pujols in a stadium defined, in large part, by the rarity of the greatness he provided there in six short seasons.
Now, that end can be rewritten.
With long-time teammate and dear friend Yadier Molina already having announced his pending retirement after this season and the similarly described Adam Wainwright all but doing the same, 2022 now takes on a tone of nostalgia even as the Cardinals profess a desire to contend for a championship.
‘I love you man’
There will be challenges in balancing the twin goals of providing proper send offs to franchise legends while simultaneously maximizing the competitive windows of superstars like Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado near the peaks of their careers.
Still, even those players won’t be able to help but be swept up in the moment.
“Albert Pujols, I love you man,” Arenado said last May upon Pujols’s release from the Angels. “You’re one of the greatest to play this game and I hope you get to go out the right way.”
Arenado — and all of St. Louis — will now get to see that end up close.
This story was originally published March 28, 2022 at 9:47 AM.