The worst season of Albert Pujols‘ career is officially in the books.
According to Alden Gonzalez of MLB.com, the Angels have ruled Pujols out for the rest of the season. The 33-year-old went on the disabled list with a partially torn plantar fascia in his left foot in late July and was holding out hope for a return after shedding his walking boot on Friday, but that scenario never made much sense with the Angels so far out of the race. At this point, it’s best for all involved to turn the focus to 2014.
Hobbled by the foot injury, Pujols batted just .258/.330/.437 with 17 home runs and 64 RBI in 99 games this season while seeing the majority of his at-bats out of the DH spot. His OPS has dropped from 1.001 to .906 to .859 to .767 over the past four seasons. The Angels will have to hope that improved health reverses that trend. Pujols still has another eight years remaining on his monster $240 million contract.
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