The Cardinals "appear to have firmed" the timetable for talks about a new contract with Albert Pujols according to Joe Strauss of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Twitter link). The team unsurprisingly picked up their first baseman's $16MM option for 2011 last month.
Pujols, 31 in January, has a resume that reads like a video game. He's a .331/.426/.624 career hitter with nine All Star Game appearances in ten seasons, not to mention three MVP awards and five other top four finishes in the voting. Next season will be the final one on the seven-year, $100MM contract he signed before the 2004 season.
GM John Mozeliak indicated that the club might increase its payroll over the next few seasons back in September, something they'll almost certainly have to do to keep their megastar and remain competitive.
I’d be shocked if it wasn’t as soon as possible
Interesting. They have to get a deal done by Opening Day. I say an 8yr/$200MM deal not overriding the option year would be okay. That’s 9 more years of Pujols in STL.
Am I weird to think that $25 million/year for Pujols is a bargain?
Considering what Arod signed for (twice) and I’m willing to bet most baseball fans consider Pujols to be the superior player… it’s a bargain.
most? should be all baseball fans with the exception of a few yankee fans
Sure it is. Ryan Howard makes that, and he’s no Albert.
The fact that the Cards might be playing hardball have changed my fantasy of seeing Pujols in a Red Sox uniform in 2012 up from “You’ve gotta be joking” to Lloyd Christmas in Dumb and Dumber shouting “So there’s a chance!”
Well according to most of America, the Sox will be trading 5 OF prospects, 3 overrated pitchers, and Daniel Nava for Adrian Gonzalez, so Pujols isn’t going to Boston if you ask me!
Good, I want Albert in St. Louis but, they have to figure out if they are going to be able to keep him or not. If not, you have to look into the possibility of trading him. I’m pretty confident a deal will be done before the New Year.
A-Rod’s contract should be the starting point. 10 years:275-300 million would be Pujol’s target.
You want Pujols until he’s 40?…. in the NL….?
no it shouldn’t. A-rod first and foremost, was grossly overpaid. second, he played a prime position(ss and 3b when he had to move for jeter) which is a lot more valuable than first base. I think they put their foot down on a hard 7 year deal but have an AAV as high as 28mil. if its anymore, i would seriously consider trades.
“Timetable”
Cue the insane trade proposals, and fantasy lineups featuring Pujols batting cleanup!
Oh boy…
I would want Pujols batting 3rd
Insane are the Cards fans who think they’re special and Albert would Never leave their team! Yeah Right! And the biggest joke is this “Timetable” St. Louis has, like they would say no to Pujols in August if he wanted to sign their proposal! Pujols has all the leverage and he Will get paid, justifiably, better than A-Rod!
In MLB 2K10, I’ve never been able to get Pujols to hit over .320 in a season.
So it reads better than a video game, apparently. Or more realistically, the game is just bad.
Switch to MLB 10 The Show. You’ll feel so much better.
The show is heaven.
In my MLB 10 The Show copy Taylor Buccholz and Dustin Nippert pitch like aces every single time I simulate with them…
If it was for PC, I would.
This is a bit off-topic, but I saw the preview for MLB 2K11 today, the graphics are as good as my 1993 Sega Genesis. Pretty pathetic for a 2011 video game, especially seeing as to what The Show and that Japanese game did.
20 people from the 2K sports team got fired a couple months back. I don’t care about graphics, I just want a game that gives me a good baseball experience.
it is really quite baffling how any player who has played 10 seasons should be the MVP of the league 50% of the time(he had 2 MVP’s robbed by Bonds, arguably 3 if you count Howard’s but we won’t get into that).
I’ll give you Howard but Bonds beat Pujols in almost every category.
steroids… thats why i disqualified Bonds but not Howard, atleast Howard was clean.
Stop… no steroid debates.
which is why i said “we won’t go into that” but someone still went into that lol…
Steroids did help Bond put up monstrous numbers but he was a pretty good player even before the steroids. Also, you cant say the use of steroids was the reason he was able to put up those numbers. If you cant see the ball you wont hit it no matter how hard you swing and it’s not like the bat is a 5 inch paddle.
Skill only accounts for making contact. It could account for the extra strength or swing speed to hit HRs, but if he did do ‘roids (I’m not picking sides, even though I know which one I’m on) that would definitely inflate the HRs, which would in turn inflate RBIs, SLG, OPS, etc.
Why does payroll HAVE to increase to sign Pujols?
If Pujols wants to remain a Cardinal AND have them be competitive every year then he must realize there is a certain point the team can NOT go past to be able to keep him and add palyers who can help him win.
So, having said that, why not sign Albert to a 20 year, $12.5 million dollar per year ($250 million dollars total) contract? That gives him financial security (like he doesn’t ALREADY have that) while also giving the Cardinals room to make moves and acquire GOOD players the next few years.
Payroll was going to go up over the next couple years regaurdless. The new stadium is nearly paid off now, and it will steadily rise like it did before the new stadium. Although it will not be a 20 year contract, Albert will definately be getting paid long after his time with the Cardinals. There will be a few million per year paid out in deferred payments. They did the same thing with Holliday.
Worst contract proposal EVER!
or they could pay him $6.25 million a year for 40 years and sign some top shelf talent to play with him. Come on. Why in the world would Pujols sign a contract that pays him less than half what he could make playing elsewhere and commits him for 20 years? Maybe he would sign for $2.5 million for 100 years…
yeah, because if he doesnt make the major league record contract, he will when he gets paid 12.5 million when he is 50!!!!
7 years, $210M
If he stays in St Louis, not a chance. We cant afford a 30 million dollar player. 7/200 is the absolute highest we could push it, and I dont think that is even possible. 7/190 is more like it or 8/210.
Then kiss Pujols goodbye!
because the extra $1.5 million a year would make you walk away? Really?
Dollar amount is on the money at 30 million per but he’ll probably want that at 8-10 years IMO! All you cards fans who think this is certain to get done might get a rude wake up call next winter when he jumps ship. He won’t take less than ARod guaranteed and why should he? All players follow the money and St.Louis is no different so u cardsfans need to face reality. Odds are 50/50 that he leaves cuz the cards can’t afford him! This is fact so, yeah, I can imagine him in a Boston or Angels uniform next year!
I wouldn’t say ALL players follow the money. I think Joe Mauer could have gotten quite a bit more if he had gone to the Yankees to replace Posada. Other than that I think that you are right on.
Was Pujols previous 7/100 contract the only 100 million dollar contract that can be deemed a bargain?
i really don’t think PUJOLS will re-up with the cards. considering what would be waiting for him in the free agent market. no way. he’ll be asking for A-ROD type money/years and they cards just cannot afford it. this is what A-ROD’s contract looked like @ 10 years and 275m in 2008: 08:$27M, 09:$32M, 10:$32M, 11:$31M, 12:$29M, 13:$28M, 14:$25M, 15:$21M, 16:$20M, 17:$20M. the yankees payroll was $213,359,389 this year. compare that to $ 94,220,500 which was the cardinals’ this year. that means the cardinals’ budget is only 44% of what the yankees spend. 44%!! there’s no way they’re going to re-sign him. there’s no way to justify two guys making 48-50% of your payroll (holliday/pujols). Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright’s contracts are expiring in a couple of years. will you risk not being able to afford both of them? i think you’ll have to decide between two cy young type pitchers and one of the greatest hitters of all time. i hope you guys don’t get your hearts broken in thinking this guy’s going to stick around.
there is also such a thing called deferred money. he will re-sign and i expect a ton of money is going to be deferred
you mean like the $2M annually deferred without interest, to be paid from 2020 to 2029 in annual installments of $1.4M or $1.6M, depending on whether the option vests or is exercised (present value of $113,580,723 per MLBPA) for matt holliday? if they plan on deffering $2m a year from 2020 to 2029 on a 7yr/$120m contract for matt holliday, how much are they going to defer on a 9-10yr/$250m contract for pujols? 6m? 7m? 8M? lasting from 2020 to 2029? that would handcuff your future Cardinals teams $8-10m every year in the 2020’s, when these guys wouldn’t even be there. why put your franchise at that much of a risk? especially over one guy. look at what happened to the texas rangers after they made that horrible deal with AROD and then decided to trade him while picking up the tab. they just came out of bankrupcy. it isn’t happening man.
look everybody seems to be forgetting that the Cardinals can drastically increase their payroll BECAUSE of Albert. do you know how much money he will make the Cardinals by himself over the next ten years? all the milestones he’ll chase, the MVPs, world series runs??? as a pure business investment, it would be stupid NOT to sign Albert. he’ll make the Cardinals far more money than what they’re going to spend on him
Next off season could be epic 😀
I bet St Louis is only able to sleep because Scott Boras isnt his agent, seriously, who would he compare Pujols to? i bet he would ask for a 5 year 200 million dollar deal or a 7-8 year damn near 300 million…..so all of you in St Louis, remember to thank his agent in regards to he wont COMPLETELY take you to the cleaners.
8 yrs/240 million
I like everyone saying that Pujols will jump ship for more guaranteed money. I forgot that he doesn’t make enough money now. He has his charity foundation based out of St. Louis, his family loves it there, and he has a chance to make the playoffs each year with the division they play in.
I say they give him 8yrs/$200million and make him part owner.