Chris Lee/St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Don't cry for the Cardinals. Yes they just lost one of the greatest players in baseball history to free agency, but there's life after Albert Pujols in St. Louis. In the long term, the path ahead doesn't include the team spending $254 million for the age-32 to -41 seasons of a single player who doesn't have the benefit of the designated hitter and can't be moved if his defense declines. In the short term, replacing the 5.4 wins above replacement (per Baseball-Reference's WAR) that Pujols was worth in 2011, his worst major league season, isn't nearly as hard as Pujols' iconic status would make it seem.
In fact, the Cardinals are already expecting the return of a player nearly two years Pujols' junior who averaged six wins above replacement over the 2009 and 2010...
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