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Angels slugger and future Hall of Famer Albert Pujols is entering his 21st MLB season and the final year of the 10-year, $ 240 million contract he signed with the Angels in 2011. Last week, Pujols said he didn’t was not sure about his future in baseball. would look like the 2021 MLB season. On Monday, however, his wife, Deidre, sparked retirement speculation after sharing an Instagram post stating that her husband would be retiring after the next campaign.
The message originally read “[Monday] is the first day of the final season of one of the most remarkable careers in the sport. The post was updated to say it was ‘not an official statement’ of retirement. Pujols spoke with ESPN’s Enrique Rojas on Monday evening, saying “nothing has changed” since he spoke about his gambling future last week.
Here is the Instagram post:
Pujols, who turned 41 last month, is already considered one of the best hitters in baseball history, and although his power output has regressed with age, he will always have a chance to add to his legacy in the 2021 MLB season – and, potentially, beyond. In 2020, Pujols reached .224 / .270 / .395 (80 OPS +) with eight doubles, six homers and 25 RBIs.
Despite the 60-game season, Pujols managed to make some career milestones. He passed Willie Mays on the all-time list at home to claim fifth place in the abridged season with his 661st career homerun. The only players in Major League history with more homers than Pujols are now Barry Bonds (762), Hank Aaron (755), Babe Ruth (714) and Alex Rodriguez (696).
Pujols also passed Alex Rodriguez on MLB’s all-time RBI roster to become the only second-place possession of all time in the shortened 2020 season. Only legendary Hank Aaron, who has recorded 2,297 RBI in 23 seasons, now stands ahead of Pujols. It should be noted, however, that the MLB does not count the RBI until 1920 because that was not yet an official statistic. Babe Ruth (2,214 RBI) and Cap Anson (2,075 RBI) are in the 2,000 RBI club when you count the pre-1920 stats.
Over the past four seasons, Pujols has a batting line of .242 / .291 / .406 (87 OPS +) in addition to 1,800 home plate appearances. For Pujols’ career line, it’s .299 / .377 / .546 (146 OPS +) with 3,236 hits, 662 home runs and 2,100 RBI. In 10 of his 17 big league seasons, Pujols has reached 30 or more home runs, although he hasn’t hit more than 23 home runs in a season since 2016. In his prime, he was one of the biggest hitters. of all time, even though he hasn’t been that player for several years now. With the Angels in recent years, he’s been their designated hitter mostly.
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