Do the Cardinals Really Want to Re-Sign Pujols?

Posted by John Mark in MLB FUN | 2 comments

I’m not a Cardinals fan.  At all.  In fact, I despise the Cardinals.  But with the rest of baseball fans around the country, I have been following the Albert Pujols contract situation closely.  I’ve been trying to step back and look at this situation from all angles.

No matter how I look at it, if I were a Cardinals fan, I’d be disappointed in the organization right now. 

Perhaps the outcome of not being able to sign Pujols would have been the same no matter how it was handled.  Perhaps the Cardinals will still be able to sign Pujols after the season.  But to me, it sure doesn’t seem like they put themselves in a position for that to happen.

To better understand what’s going on, we need to look back further than just the past month that the negotiations were taking place (even though they never really seemed to take place).

The fact is, the Cardinals front office has known full well what was coming for a long time.  The fact that this was the last offseason the Cardinals could negotiate a new deal with Pujols before he hit free agency was no surprise.  But the impression that was given over the last few weeks is that everything was rushed and thrown together.  If reports are correct, only one offer was even made to Pujols.

The details that are coming out about that report say that the contract proposed to Pujols was for around 8 years with an annual salary average of around $20-22 million.

Now first let me say, I admire Albert Pujols.  As much as I hate to admit it as a Cubs fan, it’s hard to dislike the guy.  He’s a class act on the field and off of it.  I also get the sense from Albert that it’s not about the money.  $20 million a year is enough for anyone to live on.  What I think it comes down to for Pujols is respect. 

Albert Pujols hasn’t just been a Cardinal over the last ten years.  He has been the Cardinals.  He’s the face of the team.  He’s a nine time All-Star, has won 3 MVP awards, won two Gold Gloves, and won the Rookie of the Year award.  Five times he didn’t win the MVP, he finished in the top 3 in voting.  His average annual stats are .331 BA, 42 HR, 128 RBI, .426 OBP, .624 SLG, 95 BB, 67 SO.  He’s never played less than 143 games in a season and 8 out of his 10 seasons he has played more than 150 games.

On the field, there is no one better.

After his first three seasons in the league, he signed an 8 year, $111 million deal.  That’s $13.875 annually.  The fact that he agreed to an eight year deal when he could have signed a much shorter deal in order to get a big payday earlier showed his desire to stay with St. Louis and that it wasn’t about the money.

This time around if the Cardinals can’t re-sign Pujols, they’ll lead you to believe it is because they can’t afford him.  The fact is, the Cardinals have made so much money because of Pujols, they can afford him.  Think of all the money Pujols has brought in for the Cardinal organization through ticket sales, advertising, merchandise, etc.  Do you know a Cardinals fan without a Pujols jersey?  Ok, so maybe not everyone has a jersey.  But it’s likely that many people are Cardinal fans- or more active Cardinal fans, simply because of Albert Pujols.

Maybe Pujols really is seeking a 10 year, $300 million deal and won’t settle for less.  But look at it this way, if the Cardinals obliged and signed him to that deal, between the first extension and this extension, the Cardinals would have paid Pujols a total of $411 over 18 years.  An average of… $22.83 million a year.  And that’s not counting the first three years of Pujols career where he made close to the minimum each year.

Obviously that’s not how you look at things from a business standpoint, however.  Just because Pujols gave the Cardinals a deal by signing such a long term deal the first time around doesn’t mean that the Cardinals have to make the sacrifice in signing him to a ten year deal now that he’s coming to the end of his prime years.  From the Cardinals perspective, they’ve had a huge bargain over the past 10 years. 

The dilemma here is that no other team may benefit financially from a 10 year, $300 million deal with Pujols.  He’s already an icon and established in St. Louis.  Let’s say, for instance, that the Cubs signed him to that mega-contract.  On the front end, that’s pretty huge as far as merchandise, etc goes.  The Cubs already sell-out most of their games, so they’re not going to see a real substantial rise in ticket sales unless they raise ticket prices- which they would probably do.  But if Albert’s numbers start declining after a couple of years, now we’ve got another Soriano problem where so much money is tied up in one player that isn’t putting up the production to match what you’re paying him.  And if that happened, the Cubs fans don’t have the past 10 years of history with great Pujols years to fall back on. 

But in St. Louis, a declining 37 year old Pujols is still a fan favorite.  Even if he’s struggling.  Just as Mark Grace, Ryne Sandberg, etc. were at the ends of their Cubs careers.  Icons get a pass if they have a long-standing history of success with the organization. 

The fact is, the Cardinals don’t “owe” Pujols a $300 million contract.  In the end, it’s still a business and each team has to do what is best for the organization.  And if it takes $300 million, it’s probably better for the Cardinals to part with Pujols. 

But my point is, the Cardinals have known all of this all along.  Only coming up with one contract offer that would pay the best player in baseball a salary that is barely in the top 10 of annual salaries in baseball right now is an insult.  Offering Pujols a 5-6 year contract for $30+ million would have at least shown Pujols that the Cardinals respect him but also shows the limitation in the commitment they could make. 

An offer for an annual salary between $20-22 million sure seemed like an offer made to be rejected.  Again, the end result may have been that Pujols left for more money and years that the Cardinals could give him. 

All the Cardinals owe Pujols is respect.  And in my mind, that’s the one thing that they failed to offer him.