During the week, former Miami Marlins president David Samson confirmed that the Dominican player is older than he claims to be, in an interview on sports journalist Dan Le Batard’s podcast.
This statement came when the two discussed their position against the Marlins.
The Miami team was one that Pujols negotiated with during his off-season 2011 free agent spell, though in the end the three-time Most Valuable Player (MVP) winner decided to make a deal with the Anaheim Angels for 10 years and $ 240 million.
“We knew when we did the calculations for that deal that we didn’t care about 2019, 2020 or 2021. It was so far into the future that it didn’t matter … we knew it would be unproductive, we knew It wasn’t the age it said it was. We had all the information. ”said the former Major League Baseball director.
Faced with this revelation, Le Batard offered Samson an opportunity to recant and ask him “have you just plainly stated that Pujols is older than he always said he is?”
However, Samson reiterated his position on the matter, stating that there were many irregularities in the Dominican Republic regarding the age of various baseball outlooks.
“There is not a person in baseball, not a single manager, who believes that Albert Pujols is the age he claims to be. The amount of fraud going on in the Dominican Republic at the time, changing names, changing birthdays, would blow your mind, ”he replied.
The current 41-year-old Pujols is preparing for his last contract year with the Angels, his 21st season in the “Big Top”.