Welcome back, Albert Pujols, who could have been a Ray

ST. PETERSBURG — As he makes what he says is his last lap around the league, Albert Pujols this week is playing for the ninth and, presumably, last time time at Tropicana Field

The stadium he could have called home.

Before Pujols, 42, went on to play 22 seasons with the Cardinals, Angels, Dodgers and now back with St. Louis, compiling a Hall of Fame-worthy career that includes 1,373 extra-base hits (fourth-most all time), 683 homers (fifth-most) and 3,319 hits (tied for ninth-most), he could have been a Devil Ray.

As the Rays completed preparations for the 1999 draft, their Midwest area scout, Fernando Arango, raved about a relatively unknown player from a Kansas City junior college who had a thick body and was playing out of position at shortstop but could hit.

The Rays sent two scouting supervisors to see Pujols play, but neither was impressed. Then they brought him to the Trop to participate in a pre-draft workout but again didn’t like what they saw, concerned enough about his fielding that they asked him to put on the gear and try catching.

“It was just an ugly workout,” former scouting director Dan Jennings told the Tampa Bay Times in 2004.

The Rays pegged Pujols as a candidate to be drafted in rounds 30-50. The Cardinals took him in the 13th round, 402nd overall, and signed him for $60,000.

“You could say it was one of our biggest oversights, but you’d have to say that about the other 28 teams,” Jennings said. “I just wish we would have been smart enough to take him in the 12th round.”

A Rays draft that included eight future big-leaguers, starting with Josh Hamilton, Carl Crawford and Doug Waechter, could have been that much better.

Liberatore for all

Though the Cardinals sent Matthew Liberatore back to the minors last week after he went 1-1 with a 5.54 ERA in three starts, they remain very high on the 22-year-old lefty who was the reason they traded Randy Arozarena, along with Jose Martinez, to the Rays in January 2020. “A 22-year-old lefty that is an emerging player, yeah, we’re excited about what we have,” Cardinals baseball operations president John Mozeliak said Monday. “We knew we had to be patient there. But when you think about those kinds of trades, not every deal is about today. And that deal for us was trying to decide what we might look like in 2022 or 2023 or 2024. So we took the long view in that deal, for sure.”

Miscellany

The Rays may have an update Tuesday on the status of Shane Baz, who had an impressive fourth rehab start Sunday for Triple-A Durham. He struck out 10 and allowed four hits over 4-1/3 innings, throwing 79 pitches. He is eligible to be reinstated from the injured list, having been sidelined since March arthroscopic elbow surgery. … The Cardinals, long considered a favorite team for many St. Petersburg fans due to holding spring training there for 57 years (1938-1942, 1946-97), make their first visit to the Trop since 2014. … Lefty Jeffrey Springs is set to start for the Rays on Tuesday, having gone 1-2, 2.49 in five outings since moving into the rotation. … The 16 hits the Rays allowed Sunday were their most in a home game since July 19, 2019, also against the White Sox.

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