Quo vadis Albert Pujols: The Angels view, the Red Sox angle, the Cardinals fan view, and ONE outside possibility

With word out that the Angels will designate for assignment Albert Pujols, aka Phat Albert, aka The Machine, as I blogged at the time, likely leading to his unconditional release, what's next?

First, it WILL be his unconditional release. For anybody to seriously pick him up off waivers, it would have to be an AL team flush with money, if they can't get the Haloes to eat most the contract, and to be thin at DH, at a minimum, and maybe there and 1B both. Not happening. The BoSox are fine at DH with J.D. Martinez, although they have a dog's breath at first with Bobby Dalbec listed as tops of the depth chart. The Yankees are loaded at DH with Giancarlo Stanton and OK at first with DJ LeMahieu there and Luke Voit about to return. The Jays are solid at both with Vlad Guerrero Jr. and George Springer. On paper, the stRangers and Astros could both use some degree of help, but I don't see either one shelling out money, certainly not the Arlingtonites.

Yeah, it's possible that he clears waivers AND some team then picks him up for the MLB minimum. But ... is he going to go there, when he'll likely play no more than he would have for the Angels? 

Pujols says he still wants to play. The Angels essentially honored his desire after it being clear there's no room in the inn in Anaheim.

As for the Angels cutting him? It boiled down to whether they're better with Taylor Ward in RF and Jared Walsh at 1B rather than Walsh playing halfway out of position in right and Pujols at first. And, the answer is likely the former, and Pujols doesn't want to ride pine, with Shohei Ohtani ahead of him at DH, too, he would ride plenty. Neither did A-Rod at his end.

Per the top dogs in the AL, if he clears waivers?

It WOULD be weird to see him wearing RedSox togs or Rangers ones, per World Series history. Would be weird in a Stros uni, too, of course. 

And, it's only going to be the AL. He's not playing in the NL, where, except for interleague, he has to play first on a regular basis. Now, that said, I guess AL teams who really think he might have gas in the tank could get in a bidding war about the MLB minimum for his services. He HAS had a long reputation of starting slow, and a week ago, was around .240 on batting and over .700 on OPS.

Returning to St. Louis would be nice and sentimental, and I know Cards fans are saying, "YES" in many cases. But, he's not going ahead of Paul Goldschmidt, not when they also have Matt Carpenter as a backup 1B. So, he'd be riding as much or more pine than in Anaheim. (I'd be fine with him doing the one-day contract and retirement scenario.)

So, my guess is? He clears waivers, and Boston approaches him first, if  anybody does.

(I originally had just "Sox" in the header, but after old manager Tony La Russa said "no room at the inn" on Chicago's South Side, I thought I'd better be more specific. I don't doubt the Pony is right on Albert's desire to play; I do doubt that there's as much in the Machine's gas tank as Pujols claims or that La Russa thinks he's correct in claiming.)

Let us scratch some other ideas. Yes, Phat Albert would be better than Miguel Cabrera, but he's NOT going to Detroit, contra a poster on my original piece. I mean, Detroit is just hoping not to be relegated to AAA level. (Oh, sorry, this isn't the English Premier League.)

Contra this Fansided nuttery (Isn't all of it at Fansided?) which claims Miggy is up there with Pujols and Trout as the three best players of the last 30 years (Albert's WAA is as high as Cabrera's WAR), he's also NOT going to the Reds. Joey Votto will be back in a month and it's an NL team. Also, showing the typical Fansided posting of clickbait, he's not going to the Chisox as La Russa already said so.

The only reasonable place for him? AL, contender, and need? More reasonable than Boston, and where the "veteran leader" might also play?

The Rays. Austin Meadows and Yoshi Tsutsugo are both horrible at DH. Horrible.

Doubling down on his previous Fansided stupidity, Sean Millerick NOW thinks that Albert could sit out the rest of this year, get "recharged," be signed by some team next year AND hit 700 HRs. That's something he's not done in a single season since 2016. He otherwise repeats the stupidity of his previous post, and thereby reinforces stereotypes that baseball-knowledgeable people have about Fansided.

Contra this guy, NO the Rockies are not a landing spot. Again, Pujols, even if he warmed up a modest amount, does NOT have the bat to offset his limitations at 1B on a regular basis. The Royals aren't as bad off at DH as the Rays, or as bad off as he claims. Cleveland? See Colorado.

Beyond that? Colorado's already out of it. Seriously. That loaded of a division? The Royals aren't that bad off, but they're not good. Cleveland would be, if Albert wants to play with a winner, the best of those three. I could halfway buy it as an option while still thinking Tampa's a better bet for both him and a team.

Yay-sayers of him going to a place like Cleveland, or even an NL team, may point that for 2018-21, he played more at 1B than DH. That still doesn't mean it was good. It's just that they had godawful options after trading C.J. Cron after 2017, at least bad options for 2018-19. Walsh was there, and the better option, last year, and Ohtani was of equal value at DH by OPS+.