That's the plan, at least.
However, marriages don't always go according to fairytale plan, and at the very least, there's bound to be a bump or two in the road from time to time.
The Angels and Pujols had a bump in the road on Wednesday, but this marriage won't need any counseling any time soon.
Pujols and the Angels were in the news on Thursday when the newly signed slugger mentioned that he wasn't thrilled about the Angels' use of the phrase "El Hombre" in billboards, as Pujols feels that moniker (in any language) is reserved for Stan "The Man" Musial.
Pujols wasn't happy, and he let that be known. The Angels responded, and it sounds like cooler heads will prevail. In the grand scheme of things, it was nothing.
Don't expect it to escalate into anything bigger, though. Like any good marriage, Pujols and the Angels need each other too much to let their relationship deteriorate.
The Angels have long been a power in the AL West, at least in the last decade, but that position of power has been severely threatened, if not not stolen from them by the Texas Rangers. The Rangers are coming off of back-to-back AL pennants, and you better believe the Angels are feeling the pressure. How else do you explain investing $300 million into Pujols and C.J. Wilson this winter?
That sort of financial investment — especially the $250 million promised to Pujols over the next decade — isn't the only commitment the Angels have made. With that financial investment comes emotional involvement as well. In other words, if you've committed a quarter of a billion dollars to a guy, you should probably put the kibosh on a promotional campaign that makes him uncomfortable.
However, the union of marriage is a two-way street, and one of the keys to any good marriage is compromise. So if this is going to work — and we're still operating under the assumption that it will — Pujols will have to do his part as well.
The Angels offer Pujols one of the biggest and brightest markets in baseball. He knows that. It's what draws athletes to Southern California. The $250 million doesn't hurt either.
The point is, Pujols knows what he's gotten himself into. He took the money and the spotlight while leaving behind what was comfortable and what he knew. But if Pujols embraces that spotlight, that notoriety, being "El Hombre," then his legacy will only grow. It's true that after more than 400 home runs, two World Series titles and achieving living-legend status in St. Louis, there's much more for Pujols to do. Los Angeles and the surrounding area gives him a chance at that — but only if he buys in to the larger-than-life attitude out there.
That also means leaving the life he used to live in St. Louis and putting that in the past. He'll always have the memory of that relationship (even if it is frayed now), but in that profession, you obviously need to distance yourself from those things, at least during your playing days.
Pujols, to his credit, seems to be willing to do so.
"I can't go back and feel sorry," Pujols recently said, according to CBSSports.com. "It's time to move forward. It's like another chapter in my life and it's time to open a new one. I don't want to go look over my shoulder and regret the decisions I made. It was the best for me and my family."
While arguably the best argument for prolonged success between the two sides remains their mutual need for each other, the Angels and Pujols are also both still really, really good at what they do. Pujols is arguably the best hitter of his generation, and the Angels are a team that have contended for a long time and only stand to be even better.
They obviously saw something in each other that they liked — that's how all good relationships start. The honeymoon is over, though, and some days will be better than others. In the end, though, it's safe to assume the good days will far outweigh the bad in sunny SoCal.
