Is it time for the Angels to DFA Albert Pujols?
His contract is a significant thing, but the Los Angeles Angels may have to think about designating Albert Pujols for assignment.
If someone told you a first base/DH-type for the Los Angeles Angels had a .403 slugging percentage so far this season, you’d probably guess it was Luis Valbuena. But it’s Albert Pujols, who has eight home runs and 32 RBI to make his power numbers look less than rancid at first glance. But even during a decent stretch since mid-May (.273 with 11 RBI), he’s only slugging at a .400 clip with just three extra-base hits over that span.
When Pujols signed a 10-year, $240 million deal just prior to his 32nd birthday, it was clear the end of the contract was going to be bad for the Angels. He’s still got three full seasons left on the deal, and while his home run totals have been respectable Pujols’ batting average has fallen big from its consistent, .300-plus peak with the St. Louis Cardinals.
The two easiest explanations for Pujols’ batting average drop are striking out more than he ever has (15.1 percent this year, 14.6 percent in 2017) and plantar fasciitis that has hampered him in recent years. Through just over two months this year, his “soft contact” rate has crept over 20 percent for just the second time in his career. With less contact, more soft contact and a big spike in infield pop-ups as well this year, Pujols’ current .252 average seems to have room to drop.
At the root, Pujols is experiencing what we’ve rarely seen in the shadow of performance-enhancing drug use–the natural decline of a slugger. He’s 38 years old (documented age, amid some speculation he’s actually two years older), with diminished physical gifts and a foot injury that has nagged him.
If concrete evidence can be found that Pujols was older than he said he was when he signed his contract, the Angels may have an out. Lawyer Sheryl Ring contributing a piece for FanGraphs citing language in the contract, which points to Pujols’ possible advanced age as a material defect. But without that, and with $87 million due to him from 2019-2021, the Angels may be better off designating Pujols for assignment and eating that money.
The Angels signed Josh Hamilton the year after Pujols. But it did not work out, he has not played anywhere in the big leagues since the 2015 season and he’s done playing. But the Angels paid Hamilton a total of $52.82 million in 2016 and 2017 to not be in their organization, so they’ve absorbed big sunken salary costs when things reached a point of no return.
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The idea of DFA’ing Pujols may be an internal conversation for the Angels in some fashion, and he is now a negative value player according to advanced numbers like WAR. But making the actual move to cut ties has to be a long way off, since Pujols has been a lineup regular and he’s not a complete dead weight yet.