Cardinals Slugger Accomplishes MLB-Best Feat Stan Musial, Albert Pujols Never Reached

In St. Louis Cardinals’ lore, players know anytime they join a list that includes Hall of Famer Stan Musial or legendary slugger Albert Pujols, they have truly accomplished something special.

However, Alec Burleson pulled off a feat on Sunday that not even Musial or Pujols ever accomplished their legendary careers.

By emerging from the 2026 regular season as MLB’s RBI leader with 116, Burleson became the first Cardinals’ player to do that since Joe Torre had 137 RBI in his Most Valuable Player award season of 1971. Burleson, who was rested on Sunday and played in 160 games this season, edged out Baltimore Orioles first baseman Pete Alonso, whose final game on Sunday was washed out by rain and finished with 113 RBI.

Burleson joined a list that includes Hall of Famers Rogers Hornsby (143 in 1925), Enos Slaughter (130 in 1946), Keny Boyer (119 in 1964) and Joe Torre (137 in 1971) as the only Cardinals’ hitters to lead all of MLB in RBI. Burleson is the first left-handed-hitting Cardinal to lead MLB in RBI in 80 yards, doing so as Slaughter did in 1946.

“I’m just doing my job,” Burleson said of his career-high total in RBI. “Guys ahead of me having been getting on base all year and I’ve just been trying to do my job by driving them in. That’s the way I look at it and I don’t try to put any more emphasis on it than if there was nobody on with two outs.

“Obviously, the way you win baseball games is by scoring more runs that the other team. So, I take pride in (RBI). In those spots, I try to remind myself that the pressure is on the pitcher and they’re going to have to throw me strikes at some point. I still feel like I left some (RBI) out there on the table, but it’s been a good year for me in terms of RBI.”

A big key to Burleson’s RBI success was how he hit this season with runners in scoring position. His 62 hits and 15 doubles with runners in scoring position led MLB in both categories. A whopping 86 of his RBI came with runners in scoring position, second only to Sal Stewart’s 87. Also, Burleson hit .358 with runners in scoring position – good for third in MLB and 12 points back of Yandy Diaz’s .370 average in those key spots.

Incredibly, Musial and Pujols never led MLB in RBI despite their gaudy offensive numbers. Musial drove in at least 100 runs 10 times and he led the NL in RBI in 1948 (131) and 1956 (109). Pujols, one of just four players in MLB history with at least 700 home runs (703), drove in 100 runs 14 times, including 137 in 2006. 135 in 2009 and 130 as a rookie in 2001. However, the three-time MVP only led the NL in RBI once (118 in 2010) and never led MLB in runs batted in.

“I definitely don’t think I’m ever going to be Albert, but it gives you something to strive for,” said Burleson, who was a teammate with Pujols in 2022 with the Cardinals. “I want to be one of the greats and a great baseball player. (Yadier Molina) has been around and I’ve been able to pick Albert’s brain a little bit. If you want to be great, you listen to the greats and you talk to the greats. It’s been super special to have those guys around to talk to.”