Paletta said Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols is down to two options with his injured right elbow — treat and protect the shredded ligament or get reconstructive surgery. "It's not a curable problem without a reconstruction," Paletta said.

Paletta did say that Pujols could go a career without needing surgery. "Probably. Possibly," he said. "What we hope is this is a manageable problem."
Pujols is off to the greatest start of any career and is the best overall player in the big leagues. My apologies to ARod. I think Pujols should play through it this year and the day after his last game go into surgery. I don't want Pujols cutting his season short if the Cards are out of it because I want him to get some numbers, Stan Musial type numbers. Pujols has dominated MLB and hopefully this doesn't slow him down one bit. He has delivered one championship and the Cards can get more building around this beast.