Albert Pujols announced before the start of the 2022 season that this year would be his last. When St. Louis Cardinals fans heard that, they assumed they would be getting Pujols for the entire campaign. But that almost wasn't the case.
Ahead of the Cardinals' MLB Playoffs battle with the Philadelphia Phillies, Pujols revealed that he considered a retirement earlier this year when he was struggling at the plate, per John Denton of MLB.com.
“No, I did, I swear I did. There were some times when I [asked] myself that, many times,” Pujols said about considering an earlier retirement than he planned.
Albert Pujols revealed that in the midst of a brutal slump that saw him hit just .158 with no homers in June, he was considering an early retirement. But the Cardinals legend got back in the cage and “figured something out in July.”
Boy did he ever. In the final two months of the season, Pujols clubbed 17 homers while driving in 44 runs. He hit .361 in August, a scorching batting average that was a worthy sequel to his .320 mark in July.
Then, Albert Pujols etched his name into the record books, belting his 700th career home run on September 23 at Dodger Stadium, becoming just the fourth player in the history of the sport to do so. Oh, and he helped lead the Cardinals to the MLB Playoffs.
But none of that would have happened if Pujols hadn't battled his way through the summer slump. Cardinals fans- and baseball ones too- are very glad that he did.
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