Now — as the oldest player in the majors, at 42 — Pujols is officially back, largely because of his performance after the Angels released him last May. Pujols joined the Dodgers and played in 85 games, hitting .254 with 12 home runs. Overall, he clobbered left-handers for a .603 slugging percentage. With the designated hitter in the National League now, Pujols can make an impact.
“Oh, he’s got something left,” said Oliver Marmol, the Cardinals’ first-year manager. “He’s got more than something left. Albert wants to play this year because he can help a team win.”
The Cardinals, who lost to Pujols’s Dodgers in the N.L. wild-card game last October, will open the season without two of their better young pitchers, the right-handers Jack Flaherty and Alex Reyes, who have shoulder injuries. But the team signed two free agent pitchers — the left-hander Steven Matz and the right-hander Drew VerHagen, who revived his career in Japan — and still has catcher Yadier Molina, 39, guiding the staff.
Molina and Pujols have said definitively that this will be their final seasons, and Wainwright, 41, said he was leaning that way, too. All three are royalty in St. Louis, with Pujols bringing an especially regal air to an organization that prides itself on tradition.