Albert Pujols denies claim about wanting to be every day player

Well, there’s another twist to the Albert Pujols saga.

A few weeks ago, the Angels shocked the baseball world when they released the future Hall of Famer. He was in the final year of his mega-contract, and it’s expected that this will be his final season. Just like that, he was DFA’d and his time with the Angels was over.

“He does not want to be a bench player of any kind,” Joe Maddon said about his former player. This guy has got a lot of pride.’’

The Angels wanted to move in a different direction. They wanted to play Jared Walsh at first base and have Shohei Ohtani as their designated hitter. By doing so, Pujols would find himself on the bench, a role that the Angels repeatedly said he had no interest in.

“Albert is not a bench player,” Angels general manager Perry Minasian said. “With respect to him, not getting any playing time would not do any good.”

Pujols shocked everyone this weekend by signing with the Dodgers, a team in which he won’t have an every day role. With a crowded infield, Pujols will likely spend most of his time coming off the bench. So, if that’s the case, why was that a problem with the Angels?

The 41-year-old was introduced as a Dodger on Monday, and had some pretty eye-opening comments in regards to the situation and how it played out.

“My goal over the last two years was to never try to be an every day first baseman,” Pujols said. “Whatever role [the Dodgers] have for me, I’m going to go with. [The Angels] made that business decision as an organization. No hard feelings.”

When asked about being an every day player, Pujols said those words never came out of his mouth. He said at this point in his career he wants to do whatever he can to help a team out and to win his third World Series.

“At the end of the day, I made the decision I felt was great for me and my family,” he said. “This organization had a really good game plan for me.”