In 2011, the LA Angels made what will go down as one of the worst management decisions in the franchise's history. They signed my favorite player of all time, Albert Pujols, to an enormous back-loaded $250-million contract, or thereabouts. Pujols left the Cardinals, where for 11 years he had been as good as any player who ever played the game, with the exceptions of Babe Ruth and Steroid Barry.
His seasons from 2001 through 2010 were uncannily predictable: it was, with a very little sophomore slump, and a little peak now and again, basically the SAME SEASON, the same brilliant season, year after year. His batting average, for one example, was
.359 .314 .359 .331 .330 .331 .327 .357 .327 .312
His on-base percentage (which for young players with brains goes up as they learn the strike zone) was
.403 .394 .439 .415 .430 .431 .429 .462 .443 .414
Clockwork. AND he was a smart and aggressive baserunner, and the best and most gutsy first baseman with the glove this side of Keith Hernandez.
Then came 2011, his final season in St. Louis, a World Series championship season. He was 31 years old, and had played the game hard. A couple of things leap out at you. It was the first time he fell short of batting .300 (.299). That's all right. What was more troubling was that his walks fell sharply, from 103 the previous season to 62, the lowest in his career. He was an aging player.
Had he remained in St. Louis, I think that his familiarity with the park and with the league's pitchers would have slowed down the natural decline that sets in. He might have ended up beating out Lou Gehrig for the best first baseman ever. He might have ended up beating out Stan Musial for the best Cardinal ever. But for an extra 20 or 30 million dollars (I know, I know, it's not chump change), he bolted to the Angels, where his aging body was suddenly in evidence.
With the Angels, he was a very different player, far inferior to what he was with the Cardinals. He never again batted .300 (highest, .285, in his first season with them). He never again had an on-base percentage over .400 (highest, .343, again in that first season). He never had even 60 walks, let alone the 92-115 in six straight years in STL (highest, 52, yet again in that first season). He has been a below average hitter every year since 2017. But since he hits home runs, the Angels kept sticking him in the middle of the lineup, where he made a tremendous number of outs.
The Angels, in Pujols' seasons with them, made the playoffs only once, and lost all three games. They have not had a winning season since 2015. In their previous ten seasons, they had made the playoffs six times, and won the World Series once (2002). Meanwhile, the Cardinals without Albert have gone to the playoffs seven times, playing a total of 56 postseason games (with a rather unimpressive 25-31 record, but 21-22 in four seasons after Albert's departure, losing the World Series in 2013 to the Red Sox).
It seems clear that the Pujols signing was key not just to a mediocre season or two for the Angels, but a whole lost decade. And, as I say, there was evidence that Albert was getting a tad long in the tooth, back in 2011. Yet the Angelic Experts pulled the trigger... Wishful thinking; the bandwagon; the Need to Do Something; deliberate ignoring of evidence ... All the pitfalls that man is heir to.