Team: Los Angeles Angels (majors, designated for assignment)
Born: January 16, 1980
Draft: Drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 13th round of the 1999 MLB June Amateur Draft from Maple Woods Community College (Kansas City, MO).
High School: Fort Osage HS (Independence, MO)
School: Maple Woods Community College (Kansas City, MO)
Debut: April 2, 2001 (Age 21-076d, 15,424th in MLB history)
vs. COL 3 AB, 1 H, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 0 SB
Rookie Status: Exceeded rookie limits during 2001 season
2021 Contract Status: Signed thru 2021, 10 yrs/$240M (12-21)
Lie about age: baseball crime against "integrity, sportsmanship, character"? Thursday, April 26, 2018
Obviously, when the Cardinals drafted Pujols they thought he was 19, not 22. Would it have mattered? Who knows?
When the Angels signed Pujols to that huge ten year contract for his ages 32 through 41 the Angels thought that Pujols was 32, not 35, which would have made the contract for ages 35 through 44, which would have probably meant that either it would not have happened at all or it would have been for maybe half the number of years and less money per season.
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View Player Info from the B-R Bullpen (https://www.baseball-reference.com)
He started his major league career with a bang: when he made his debut on April 2nd, he was presumably the first player born in the 1980s to appear in a major league game. At the time, the record was thought to belong to Rafael Furcal, who had made his debut a year earlier, but it turned out he had fudged his age when signing his first contract and was actually born in the 1970s. Of course, similar speculation has dodged Pujols as well, as he was very physically mature for a player his age when he started out, and because some have argued that his career arc and aging pattern in later seasons was also consistent with that of an older man, born in 1977 or 1978. Pujols went through the "age reconciliation" that followed the events of September 11, 2001, during which hundreds of players from Latin America had to prove their birth dates to renew their visas and as a result became a few years older overnight (that was what happened to Furcal). Pujols was never affected because he moved to America as a teenager and never had to renew his visa papers to be re-admitted, and thus was not subjected to such close scrutiny.
His age again became a subject of media discussion in March 2021 when articles appeared questioning his age, this time in relation to his recent decline and not to any perceived precocity. Former Miami Marlins president David Samson was quoted as saying that nobody in baseball believes Pujols is his stated age, and that it was a factor for many teams when he was a free agent after the 2011 season, as they were wary of giving him the long-term contract he was seeking because they were certain he was older than he claimed to be. [1] However, Samson didn't give a different age instead, but the 1977 or 1978 birth year stated above remains the most likely scenario for those who believe this theory.
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| 2012 | 32 | Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim | $12,000,000 | 11.000 | contracts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 33 | Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim | $16,000,000 | 12.000 | contracts | |
| 2014 | 34 | Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim | $23,000,000 | 13.000 | contracts | |
| 2015 | 35 | Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim | $24,000,000 | 14.000 | contracts | |
| 2016 | 36 | Los Angeles Angels | $25,000,000 | 15.000 | ||
| 2017 | 37 | Los Angeles Angels | $26,000,000 | 16.000 | contracts | |
| 2018 | 38 | Los Angeles Angels | $27,000,000 | 17.000 | ||
| 2019 | 39 | Los Angeles Angels | $28,000,000 | 18.000 | contract | |
| 2020 | 40 | Los Angeles Angels | $29,000,000 | 19.000 | contract | |
| 2021 | 41 | Los Angeles Angels | $30,000,000 | 20.000 | ||
| 2021 Status | Signed thru 2021, Earliest Free Agent: 2022 | |||||
If the Angels had signed Pujols for seven years instead of ten, they could have saved $87 million.
The Hall of Fame includes character as criteria for election but it's seldom used for something like a lie about age when signing. However, maintaining such a lie in mid career has obvious implications, including preventing more worthy players from playing, since a team would be reluctant to pay a player tens of millions of dollars to not play. The Angels had finally reached that point in this the tenth and final year of the final contract for Albert Pujols. That's why Pujols has been designated for assignment.
The baseball writers who vote for players retired at least five years for the Hall of Fame have considered performance enhancing drugs (PED) and that has prevented Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens from being elected so far. The size of Albert Pujols may cause some to wonder whether Pujols used PED.
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