Albert Pujols thought to retire in June due to lack of offensive production

The Dominican went through a lousy month in which he hit .158 without hitting homers

Can you imagine a scenario where Albert Pujols has not completed its historic season? Where would there be no Albert Pujols Day and no 700 and 703 home runs? Well, exactly that could have happened.

In an interview with MLB.com, the Dominican veteran revealed that he was about to give up baseball due to his offensive problems early in the season and not play until the end.

During his farewell ceremony last Sunday, Pujols told the crowd there were times when he wondered what he was doing playing in a 22nd season.

“No, I did, I swear I did. There were times when I wondered that, on several occasions”, replied ‘The Machine’ when asked if he really meant what he said about his doubts.

According to MLB.com, Albert Pujols reported his doubts to manager Oliver Mármol, hitting coach Jeff Albert and his close friend and hitting guru Alex Cintrón. John Mozeliak, the team’s president of baseball operations, was among those who saw what the legendary hitter saw last June.

“When you have good people around you and they are cheering you on and you realize that God has opened so many doors for you, man, it puts things back into perspective,” Pujols said. “I decided, ‘I’m going to stick with it!’ I knew sooner or later it would come and change for me, because it couldn’t be like it was all year.”

And things really changed for Pujols, from the month of July until the end of the season, his home run production was rising and we all know the story.

In the second half of the season, since the All-Star break, Albert Pujols hit 18 homers, drove in 48 runs and had an offensive line of .323/.388/.715, being an important part of the classification of the St. Louis Cardinals to the postseason.

There’s no way we’d be in this position if Albert left.”, said the leader Mármol.

The Cardinals start the playoffs this Friday against the Philadelphia Phillies at 2:07 in the afternoon, time in the Dominican Republic and the Eastern United States.

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Albert Pujols thought to retire in June due to lack of offensive production