Albert Pujols Returns Early, Is It Too Soon?

St. Louis is excited to see their slugger return to action.

Albert Pujols of course was activated from the DL yesterday. He fractured his wrist on Father’s Day against the Royals in what was seen by fans as a tough break to a tough start. He will be active tonight in the starting lineup of game two of their series with the Reds. He was activated for last nights game, but had no need to risk further injury during the Redbirds 8-1 route of their new hated rivals.

From being told he has a fractured wrist to returning just two weeks later…is he really ready for that?

I know, I know, he is “The Machine.” Seriously though, weren’t some members of the media saying this was the beginning to the end of his season, let alone his career right after it happened? Just listen to the fear instilled by Buster Olney on Mike and Mike He referred to Albert as being the next Derrek Lee or Cliff Floyd. It was such premature discussion that had Cardinal Nation in an uproar, but you knew it was way too early to comment on such a topic.

Let’s be honest with ourselves now, why would he need to return so early? The Cardinals obviously did just fine without input from him early on and we are learning as long as we have reliable pitching the wins can start to pile up. It’s great he feels ready to play, but why risk it? What are the odds he is going to step in and reaggravate the exact same injury because he couldn’t wait a few more weeks.

Originally he was to be out 4-6 weeks, Mozeliak said it would be early August. A few days ago they said Albert would be back AFTER the All Star game, but yesterday he came off the DL and here we are talking about him starting tonight.

Here’s hoping he will hit a 450 foot blast his first official at bat, but I really hope this isn’t a situation where someone ruins their career because they were too stubborn to sit out the alotted time to let an injury heal itself. We already saw Matt Holliday go down with an injury, come back, and reaggravate it all over again.

It’s a contract year, I understand this. If he even has a chance of hoping someone waves $30 million he has to come back and pick up where he left off right before Father’s Day. Since coming to the majors ten years ago, he has never played less than 140 games. Obviously his numbers are reliable, but even more so is his durability.

If he truly is back and requires no further injury time, it will be nothing short of a miracle. This would be the fastest recovery to such a scary injury we have ever seen. I sure hope he is up for this, hope he hasn’t underestimated his own situation.