“If I’m close to it, why not?” he told USA TODAY Sports. “I don’t try to chase numbers, except when I do. Also, stealing money is fun.

Has any player crossed the 100 threshold in a season with a lower OPS+?

What team would possibly pay Pujols to play for them in 2022, even at the league minimum?

Can you imagine if I had kept the pace I was on when I was in St. Louis? I’d have 800 homers by now.

“If I’m close to it, why not?”

Are injuries really to blame for Pujols' decline? He has actually been pretty good about staying on the field, but his numbers have just stunk for years now.

Why wouldn’t a team like the Boston braves pick him up to juice attendance.

It seems I say this every time an article like this comes up. I don't find it sad. If he's enjoying playing and someone will pay him, why not? I don't think you can detract from an inner circle career. If he retired three years ago, he'd be just as bad, or worse, at playing baseball today. Time marching on is sad.

But I don't think that's how it works, just copy-paste your age 20s into your 30s!

It seems I say this every time an article like this comes up. I don't find it sad. If he's enjoying playing and someone will pay him, why not? I

So you can clear a spot for someone who hasn't made $300M and really needs the chance to play?

Professional pride that you shouldn't be playing when there are 100 guys in AA/AAA better than you?

I find it sad b/c I have a 1000 things I'd love to do in my lifetime that I'll never have the time nor money to do. Pujols could do anything he wants, but instead wants to repeat the same thing he's done for 20 years, except at a much much worse rate. I presume he has a family that he's okay being away from for another year.

Go do something else. Either something fun, or something that helps others.

Isn't all this moot? What team would possibly pay Pujols to play for them in 2022, even at the league minimum?

Is it fun when you're the worst guy on the field? Especially when you used to be the best guy?

Depends how many teams are using the DH next year. Do the Royals have anyone likely to be penciled it for that?

Is it fun when you're the worst guy on the field? Especially when you used to be the best guy?

Has that been proven recently, or is it just the same speculation we've heard for over a decade now?

A few posts have referenced Pujols being 43 rather than 41. Has that been proven recently, or is it just the same speculation we've heard for over a decade now?

I would not want to engage in any activity every day at which I was terrible. Playing golf with people who are way better than you sucks, even if you play relatively well.

it isn't sad for Pujols or somehow tarnishing who he was when he was 25.

What team would possibly pay Pujols to play for them in 2022, even at the league minimum?

No one cares if Chris Davis sucks.

Why wouldn’t a team like the Boston braves pick him up to juice attendance.

Too little too late - I think they are bound for Milwaukee no matter what.

I referred to Pujols being 43. I did that because someone else did and I have no idea how old he is. I'm fairly agnostic on the issue but didn't mean to imply I'm convinced he's older than he's listed. I'm not convinced he's not but it's a pretty flimsy case. I don't think his career arc can be used as evidence. Plenty of players are washed up at 37 or 38. Even all time greats.

If his real age is 33 when he signs a new contract, no way anyone is giving him more than 6-7 years.

His career arc, his family background, the pictures of him in high school, the Dotel story...

There is not one person in baseball, not one executive, who believes Albert Pujols is the age that he says he is. The amount of fraud that was going on in the Dominican back in the day, the changing of names, the changing of birthdays, it would blow your mind.

Put me in the camp of, if a team signs a player who knowingly lied about his age, they should have some recourse (what recourse exactly, I'm not sure)

I few years ago I met a guy in my field who... well, doesn't have it anymore. But in the 70s he set the world on fire. And he still gets invitations to give keynote addresses at big conferences, and people speak in hushed tones around him. He's been, effectively, putting up zero WAR seasons for decades, but because of what he accomplished in the past he's still a huge deal.

All of which is to say that while I can maybe believe that his true age was somehow kept secret all this time, I think it's very likely that the Angels knew his true age when they offered the contract.

Huh, I never would've guessed that a porn star would still be so recognisable with his pants on.....

I think it was Tony Perez who actually used his brother's documentation when he came to the U. S., because his brother was younger than he was. Not sure it was Perez, but that's what I remember.

It is unclear if Cambria knew Oliva’s actual age at the time of extending that first contract offer, but the experienced birddog was impressed enough with the judgments of Fernández to orchestrate Oliva’s transfer as a largely untested prospect to the Minnesota farm system. As Oliva himself recounts the events, his February signing allowed only a few short weeks before a scheduled departure for spring training in the United States. The cramped time frame created a significant problem because he lacked a passport. But since his brother Antonio (older by Oliva’s telling) did possess proper documentation, a switch was hurriedly arranged and the hopeful ballplayer was cleared to leave his homeland with obviously illegitimate paperwork. The Twins’ timely offer and the availability of his brother’s passport papers enabled an escape from Cuba in the immediate aftermath of the 1959 Castro-led revolution and thus at the precise time of worsening Cuba-USA relations. One fateful consequence for the future was that the youngster would become known by a brother’s name and not his own, a fate he could never shake despite later legally changing his name in U.S. courts to Pedro Oliva Jr. (actually his rightful given name in Cuba). An equally devastating consequence was the fact that worsening relations between Washington and the newly installed Castro regime would soon block any possibilities of returning to his beloved homeland and his family homestead for decades into the future.

Jo Adell, even if he is a total bust and never makes it back to the big leagues, will tell his grandkids about how he was teammates with Albert Pujols.

.. the military service during WWII ...

...surviving the sinking of the Titanic...

There is not one person in baseball, not one executive, who believes Albert Pujols is the age that he says he is. The amount of fraud that was going on in the Dominican back in the day, the changing of names, the changing of birthdays, it would blow your mind

I'd rather watch even a greatly diminished Pujols play rather than an anonymous AAA guy, wouldn't you?

Mickey Mantle hung 'em up at age 36 mainly because his body gave out, but when he retired (March 1, 1969, it's on the Topps card I got as a kid), he also suggested he thought he was terrible in 1967 and 1968 because hit only .245 and .237 to knock his career AVG below .300.

but he drew 107 and 106 walks (so 213, vs 210 Ks), 2nd in AL in both seasons - and he was 5th in OBP in '67 and 3rd in his '68 finale for his 11th and 12th top 5s in the AL in the category. he also was 9th in WAR in 1967.

As far as I know, there aren't many good therapies and I've got friends - mostly runners - who, while never elite athletes, ran ~3 hour marathons and were very active. Once they developed plantar fascitis, they became lazy slobs like me. It's extremely painful and persistent.

There's probably a huge gap right now between how 40-year old players perceive success and how young players do.