Albert Pujols is once again the most interesting thing in St. Louis baseball

It's time to party like it's 2011

Over a decade since leaving town for a 10 year, $240 million deal to join the Angels, Albert Pujols is once again a St. Louis Cardinal. Introduced to the fans in attendance today at Roger Dean Stadium today wearing his iconic #5 jersey, one of the best to ever wear it has come home again. Who would have thought?

Three summers ago when Albert Pujols returned to St. Louis as a member of the Los Angeles Angels, I wrote that he was the most interesting thing in St. Louis baseball. The Cardinals were coming off a historically bad 9-18 May and were in the middle of a 13-13 June as they tumbled from the division lead to third place. His first return since leaving the organization was the most interesting thing going on in St. Louis baseball. And he is once again.

John Mozeliak and the Cardinals’ brass have gotten the band back together. As the 42-year-old Pujols was announced to the crowd, the 40-year-old Adam Wainwright was throwing warmup tosses to the 39-year-old Yadier Molina. Mozeliak said more than once today that all three are in their final season. Molina has said that, Pujols confirmed it today, which leaves Wainwright left to make an official announcement on his plans beyond the 2022 season. And he said that he’s not really considered that yet.

Party like it’s 2011.

The nostalgia is obvious. Fans who haven’t gotten a chance to see Pujols will want to get back into Busch Stadium to see the future Hall of Famer. But this is a team that is hoping to make a playoff run and that requires on the field production. What can Pujols bring to the table for the Cardinals other than ticket sales?

Last season Pujols declined a smaller role with the Angels and ended up getting released in his final season with the organization. At the time, there was talk of a potential Pujols/Cardinals reunion, but to be honest, they were not a good fit. With Paul Goldschmidt holding down first base, all they had to offer Pujols was spot starts and pinch hit opportunities. To be honest, that limited role had a lot to do about why I was onboard with a potential reunion last summer. Instead, Pujols ended up on the Dodgers where he would be able to get more playing time and they were able to better utilize him to let Pujols do what he still does well, and in 41 games with the Dodgers he hit 12 home runs and was just slightly above league average with a 101 wRC+ and a 0.3 WAR.

What Pujols could still do well last year was hit left-handed pitching. He would slash .294/.336/.603 against lefties with a 146 wRC+. That would have tied him for fourth on the 2021 Cardinals club with Nolan Arenado, behind Goldschmidt, Tyler O’Neill, and Dylan Carlson.

And he’s still an experienced power bat coming off the bench the rest of the time.

The Cardinals plans are likely going to be to have him split time at the DH spot with Corey Dickerson. Dickerson is a couple years removed from 2019, when he destroyed right-handed pitching, but he still hit .296/.333/.472 with a 113 wRC+ against them after being traded into a pennant race in Toronto. Did he struggle with a losing Miami team the last two seasons? Yes. But never underestimate the role motivation of being on a team with a winning culture can bring.

If both players show up like they’ve demonstrated they can in the past, the Cardinals will have one really good player combined for just $7.5 million. And if they flop, they still have Lars Nootbaar, Juan Yepez, and Nolan Gorman waiting in the wings.

This move brings the Cardinals’ Opening Day roster further into focus with a week and a half until opening day.

With Pujols and Dickerson added, the bench competition thins out significantly. I think we can expect Andrew Knizner on the roster as the backup catcher with Edmundo Sosa and Nootbaar with him.

The rotation will be Wainwright, Miles Mikolas, Steven Matz, and some combination Dakota Hudson, Aaron Brooks, and Drew VerHagen for the final two spots of the rotation with the other in the bullpen. In the bullpen, it’s still unclear exactly what assortment of team control pitchers the Cardinals will break camp with, but they do have two extra roster spots through May 1st. So that may not even be a decision they have to make right now.

The Cardinals’ Opening Day roster, minus those two extra spots, looks to stand between $158 million and $160 million depending on the results of arbitration cases for Harrison Bader and Tyler O’Neill, which is still a few million less than last year’s Opening Day payroll. In view of all the talk about team spending in light of the collective bargaining agreement talks, it will be interesting to see where team payrolls—beyond just the Cardinals—end up when the season opens on April 7th.