Albert Pujols passes Mickey Mantle, moves into 16th on All-Time Home Run List

Los Angeles Angels slugger Albert Pujols moved into sole possession of 16th place on the all-time MLB home run list, passing Mickey Mantle.

Albert Pujols has always flashed a hall of fame quality bat. Now, he’s keeping company with, and in some case passing, the game’s biggest luminaries on his own journey to Cooperstown.

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With a two-run home run in the top of the ninth inning on Thursday night, Albert Pujols moved into sole possession of 16th place among Major League Baseball’s all-time home run leaders. In the process, he passed New York Yankees legend Mickey Mantle along the way with his 537th career home run.

Now in his 15th season, Pujols is at the stage where a player’s career becomes more about the milestones he’ll hit than the awe and wonder at the year-to-year numbers he puts up. 2015 should feature a number of potential milestones for the future Hall of Famer. With 12 more home runs, Pujols will pass Mike Schmidt for 15th, and another 19 will bump Manny Ramirez out of the 14th spot on the all-time list. Additionally, Pujols could jump from 30th to 24th on the all-time RBI list with 64 more runs batted in during the 2015 season.

This all said, the fall of some of these names has come a bit later than many anticipated for Albert Pujols. After hitting 445 home runs during his 11 seasons in St. Louis, Pujols was expected to make the jump to the American League (and a DH role) where he could continue his assault on the record books. Unfortunately, his first three seasons in Los Angeles did not bring with him the same dominance that he exhibited in St. Louis. Heel injuries and missed time have limited his production, dropping his average nearly 50 points in Anaheim and his three year total for home runs to just 75, far off of the gargantuan 40 home run average he had with the Cardinals.

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However, Pujols seems to be on a bit of a rebound of late. His 537th career home run was Pujols’ 17th of the season and continues a torrid pace that has seen the slugger hit eight dingers over his last 12 games, including five in June alone. That total equals his 2013 output and puts him just 11 behind his 2014 pace, with 102 games remaining on the schedule. Given his Isolated Power (ISO) of .267 is at its highest since 2010, Pujols could be looking at his first 40-home run season since leaving St. Louis.

While many hoped that Pujols would be the slugger to erase Barry Bonds as the game’s all-time leader in home runs, the reality of the situation is that he isn’t likely to do so. At 35-years-old and showing signs of his body declining over the past few seasons, it just seems like a long shot that he’d approach Bonds at 762. For arguement sake, let’s say that Pujols finishes 2015 with 35 home runs and then averages 20 per season over the final six years of his deal with the Angels. That would place him 4th all-time (although Alex Rodriguez is likely to still increase his total) with 675. If he increases that average to 25 per season, Pujols would place finish with 705 home runs.

Those are most certainly Hall of Fame numbers, and Pujols may be the slugger to rise above the stigma of steroids when it comes to the voting process. Mickey Mantle won election six years after retirement and Albert Pujols would certainly like to follow suit.

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