Albert Pujols signing one-year, $2.5 million deal with St. Louis Cardinals

Albert Pujols is going back to where it all started — to the organization with which he carved out a Hall of Fame career, and to the city that still adores him.

On Sunday night, Pujols and the St. Louis Cardinals agreed to terms on a one-year contract for the 2022 season, sources confirmed to ESPN, giving the 42-year-old first baseman the opportunity to bookend his Hall of Fame career in storybook fashion.

Once he completes his physical, Pujols will officially return to the Cardinals organization with which he starred through his first 11 seasons in the major leagues, capturing three National League MVP awards, claiming two World Series championships and compiling nine All-Star Game appearances.

The deal is worth $2.5 million, sources said, and will grant Pujols a part-time role in which he will seemingly start at designated hitter against lefties and otherwise serve as a late-game pinch-hitter. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch and The Athletic first reported the news.

Pujols will be reunited with longtime teammates Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright, two lifelong Cardinals who elevated the franchise right along with him. There’s a strong chance all three of them could retire together at season’s end.

With the Cardinals, Pujols put together arguably the greatest 10-year run in baseball history, batting .331/.426/.625 with 408 home runs and 1,230 RBIs from 2001 to 2010. Pujols fell just one batting-average point short and one RBI short of combining a .300 batting average with 30 home runs and 100 RBIs for the 11th consecutive year in 2011, but he helped lead the Cardinals to another championship nonetheless.

In the offseason, however, Pujols left the Cardinals to sign a 10-year, $240 million contract with the Los Angeles Angels and was never able to replicate his success. He put up good numbers in 2012 but was hampered by plantar fasciitis in 2013 and emerged from that a lesser player. Pujols compiled 99 home runs from 2014 to 2016, but his slash line fell to…