The Los Angeles Angels may have made the smart baseball decision in moving on from Albert Pujols, but the way they did it seems to have aggravated a number of people around the league.
The Angels opted to designate Pujols for assignment on Thursday, ending his tenure with the Angels with little warning and no real goodbye. Given the former MVP’s weak numbers in recent years, there is no guarantee that another team would pick Pujols up, even after he clears waivers. That’s why Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez was strongly critical of the Angels over how Pujols’ departure was handled.
Martinez is apparently not alone. According to Jon Heyman of MLB Network, a number of other players are unhappy with how the Angels moved on from Pujols.
Pedro is far from the only player upset about this. @AudacySports https://t.co/Y246z7uuxk
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) May 7, 2021
Optics mean a lot here. Pujols is a legend of the game and a hero of many current players. They likely feel that Pujols deserved a chance to say farewell, or at least some warning about what was coming. The Angels may have made an understandable decision, but it seems they could have saved themselves some grief by trying to coordinate with Pujols. If it’s true that he wanted to be released if his playing time was going to be reduced, it seems as though they could have worked something out.
Pujols was hitting .198 on the season before his release with five home runs in 24 games.
