Albert Pujols and Miguel Cabrera discuss their future



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He added, “My mind is not even there. My mind is to stay focused, healthy, and hopefully try to help this ball club win this year, and that’s it. If I feel at the end of the year that’s it, I’ll announce it.

Any time Pujols and Cabrera – who will turn 38 in April – choose to retire, the decline in active leaders in certain categories could be huge. They are not only far ahead of their contemporaries in many stats, but some of the players closest to them are nearing their own ends as well.

Pujols enters this season with 3236 hits and Cabrera, with 2866, has a decent shot at his 3000 goal. The only other hitters with 2000 or more are Robinson Cano (2624), who is suspended for the entire 2021 season; Nick Markakis (2388), 36, planning to step down from 2020; and Yadier Molina (2,001), a 36-year-old wide receiver apparently not long for the game. That leaves a possibility that the leader in active hits coming in 2022 is an unlikely player like Ryan Braun of the Milwaukee Brewers (1963) or Joey Votto of the Cincinnati Reds (1908).

Among players 30 and under, Starlin Castro of the Washington Nationals (1633) and Jose Altuve of the Houston Astros (1610) are the active leaders, but either running at 3000 seems distant. Mike Trout long ago passed Pujols and Cabrera as the best hitter in the game, but thanks to a high number of steps and an overall change in the way the game is played, Trout, 29, didn’t even not had 150 hits in a season since 2016, with 1,380 career hits, Trout makes a run of 3,000 looks – so far – a long shot.

Equally extreme are the falls of active leaders in other categories.

In the circuits, Pujols (662) and Cabrera (487) comfortably ahead of Edwin Encarnacion (424), Nelson Cruz (417) and Braun (352). The best player who could reasonably be described as still in his prime is Giancarlo Stanton of the Yankees, whose 312 career homers put him within half of Pujols at 31.

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