Photograph by Agne27 at Wikipedia
Albert Pujols has reached a strange crossroads in his career as a Cardinal—in January of 2011 it’s hard to believe he’s played ten full seasons since joining the club by surprise in 2001, and it’s also hard to believe it’s only been ten years since he began dominating the St. Louis sports landscape. Only one Albert Pujols story has dragged, this whole time: It is very easy for me to believe, by now, that we’ve been talking for a full year about his future in St. Louis. (Really I’m a little more inclined to believe I’ve been listening to inscrutable contract negotiations for a decade than that I’ve been watching Albert Pujols that long.)
After last year’s non-negotiations, Cardinals fans are justifiably shy about any news coming out of either camp, but with Pujols’ self-imposed Spring Training deadline a little more than a month from stopping negotiations until the end of the 2011 season, John Mozeliak and company find themselves with one last chance to avoid the biggest free agent spectacle since Alex Rodriguez hit free agency at 25.
So provided they finally get things done, things at Busch Stadium are about to be very different. The last seven years have amounted to the biggest $100 million bargain in baseball history—since signing his deal with the Cardinals following the 2003 season, Pujols has hit .330 with 294 home runs and 849 RBI; won three MVPs and two Gold Gloves (for good measure); and somehow led the team in stolen bases three times (also for good measure). Now St. Louis is just about to experience just how much of a baseball team’s payroll can be tied up in one player.
But the Cardinals can’t afford not to sign Albert Pujols. It’s not about public relations, although losing the face of the franchise after so many Stan Musial photo ops would be a PR disaster. It’s not about personnel, either, although that would also be a problem—Allen Craig and Mark Hamilton, the Cardinals’ two hitters-in-waiting, are fine fill-ins but would be something like a five win drop-off from Pujols if everything broke their way.
It’s about the plan. For ten seasons now, the Cardinals have been built around massive contributions from its star players, primarily Albert Pujols. Last year’s megadeal with Matt Holliday only codified that—from now until 2016, at least, the team is designed to run on contributions from a core of highly paid stars and a fringe of cheap, effective rookies.
And ten seasons of experience have to have confirmed, for the team’s management, that there is no more perfect, highly paid star than Albert Pujols.
