Ranking Albert Pujols so low is so strange for us. Spending the second half of his career with the Angels, we know that Pujols will be a first ballot Hall of Fame inductee, but after a decent start, Pujols devolved into the most overpaid player in baseball and one of the worst everyday players.
Pujols was a legend in St. Louis, winning three MVPs and leading them to a pair of World Series Championships. He was so good that a legitimate question lingers as to who was the greatest Cardinal of all time, Pujols or Stan Musial. When he was a free agent, the Angels aggressively pursued he First Baseman, offering a monster contract, taking the chance the player who was in his early 30s would not decline. But decline he did.
Pujols kept up good power numbers, blasting 30 Home Runs in his first year (2012) and getting back up to 40 in 2015, which was his lone All-Star campaign in Los Angeles. He had four years where he still had over three digits in RBIs, but he never had a .300 year in Batting Average, and quickly he couldn't muster a .300 in OBP either. As his skills eroded, his defensive liabilities grew, as did his speed. After multiple years where he had a bWAR in the negative, Los Angeles released him during the 2021 season, when Pujols would not agree to reduced playing time.
As an Angel, he did have 1,180 Hits and 222 Home Runs, but nevertheless, a player who couldn't run, couldn't field, and had a sub-three OBP through the last half of his stint was a huge liability and had to reflect on this list.
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