St. Louis Cardinals: 6 realistic milestones for Albert Pujols in 2022

Albert Pujols is returning to where it all started to play his final season in MLB with the St. Louis Cardinals. The future first-ballot Hall of Famer will have an opportunity to achieve some very big milestones in his 22nd and final MLB season. In fact, there will be six big milestones that he may be able to reach in his last hurrah.

Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals will have the second-most Opening Day starts ever

St. Louis Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol has already confirmed that Albert Pujols will be the team’s DH on Opening Day, which means that he will have started on Opening Day in every single MLB season he has played in.

With his 22 Opening Day starts, he will be tied with Hall of Famers Hank Aaron and Carl Yastrzemski for second on the all-time list. The only player with more is Pete Rose, who started on Opening Day in 23 of his 24 MLB seasons.

Albert Pujols could hit 700 home runs

Albert Pujols enters the 2022 season with 679 career home runs. That is fifth on the all-time home run list. He could pass Alex Rodríguez who is fourth on the list at 696. If Pujols hits 21 homers in 2022, he will become only the fourth player in MLB history with 700 or more homers in his career.

In the last season where he had 500+ plate appearances (2019), Pujols hit 23 homers so it’s not out of the realm of possibility.

Albert Pujols could reach the 3,000 game plateau

Albert Pujols also has played in 2,971 games in his career, which is 12th all-time. If he plays in 29 more games, he will become only the 10th MLB player to ever play in 3,000 or more MLB games.

If he plays in 111 or more games, he would be fourth all-time as he would pass Dave Winfield, Barry Bonds, Cal Ripken, Jr., Stan Musial, Eddie Murray, Ty Cobb, and Rickey Henderson on the all-time games played list. All but Bonds are Hall of Famers.

Albert Pujols needs 19 hits to be in the Top 10

If Albert Pujols gets between 19 and 118 hits in the 2022 season, he will be 10th all-time in hits. He currently has 3,301, which is 12th all-time. He is just behind Hall of Famers Eddie Collins (3,315) and Paul Molitor (3,319).

Pujols had 65 hits in 296 plate appearances in 2021 and 120 hits in 545 plate appearances in 2019, so the 118 hits will be much more difficult but not insurmountable. If that happens, he could move up even a few more places as Carl Yastrzemski is ninth on the all-time hit list (3,419), Honus Wagner is eighth with one more hit (3,420), and Cap Anson is seventh with 15 more than Wagner (3,435).

Albert Pujols needs 65 RBI to pass Babe Ruth for second all-time

Albert Pujols is third on the all-time RBI list with 2,150. Babe Ruth is second all-time with 2,214 and Hank Aaron is the all-time leader at 2,297. Aaron will be out of reach, but Ruth’s number is in reach.

He had 50 RBI in 296 plate appearances in 2021 and 93 RBI in 545 plate appearances in 2019, so that is very doable for Pujols.

Albert Pujols could be second all-time in total bases too

Pujols has 6,042 total bases in his career. That is fourth all-time just behind Willie Mays (6,080) and fellow Cardinals legend Stan Musial (6,134). Hank Aaron (shocker) has the all-time lead with 6,856 so Pujols won’t come close to that.

However, passing Musial is very achievable. Pujols would need 92 total bases. He had 119 total bases in 2021 and 211 total bases in 2019.

As baseball fans, let’s hope that Albert Pujols can get at least 21 homers and 65 RBI as if he can reach those two milestones, he will achieve all of the other milestones on here. Both are very doable for him as long as he DHs for most of the games in 2022 and he is healthy.

It should be a bittersweet season for Cardinals fans, in general, with Pujols, Yadier Molina, and Adam Wainwright all potentially retiring after the season … but at least it will all be where it started for them in the majors.