Albert Pujols says he almost called it quits this summer before rebounding in the second half of the season.

Pujols nearly retired in June when he was hitting just .198/.294/.336 with four home runs. At the time he needed 17 homers to reach the 700 mark.

"No, I did, I swear I did," he said of weighing retirement. "There were some times when I [asked] myself that, many times."

After tweaking how he was holding the bat in early July, something clicked. Pujols went on to slash .314/.377/.681 while mashing 20 homers in just over three months.

"When you have good people around you and they are encouraging you and you realize that God has opened so many doors for you, man, it puts things back into perspective," Pujols said. "I decided, 'I'm going to stick with it!' I knew sooner or later it was going to come and turn around for me, because it can't be like it was all year long."