One free agent free-for-all of the winter is (fortunately) concluded. But the other — unfortunately for St. Louis Cardinals fans — is only just beginning. No matter what a certain Jose’ Alberto Pujols says about “deadlines for negotiations.”
What’s Dan Lozano, Pujols’s agent, going to do for seven months? Watch the Royals? Play Xbox? Intervene in Libya?
No, the saga of the St. Louis super-slugger is here to stay. And with no more Melodrama, we might as well spike the speculation before the first slump-busters descend on Spring Training.
So, we give you our Five for Five (for No.5): The [Five]s’s Jon Wiener poses five key questions surrounding the Cardinals’ No.5 — and whether he will be under the Arch next season.
1) Are the negotiations truly shut-off until the season is over?
See above comment re: Lozano. Honestly, all that’s at stake is the largest contract in baseball history, and the future of one its all-time greats; is the Pujols camp really not going to deal with either until October?
I can understand not taking questions on it, not discussing the contract publicly, but with all of the implications, all of the media attention, all that Pujols means to St. Louis, it’s hard to believe there won’t be endeavors, however covert, from one side or the other to make progress throughout the season. Whether we hear about them or not is a different story.
2) How much power does Pujols hold?
He certainly holds the contractual power with his “no-trade” clause, but it also seems Pujols controls the negotiating dynamic, based on his self-imposed February 16th deadline. Which puts the Cardinals in a bit of a pickle: they can either break-off talks, resume them in October, and battle the open market for Pujols; or they could push the envelope, attempt to go ahead with negotiations during the season, and risk alienating Pujols and losing him anyway.
If we’ve learned anything from the last two mega-free-agent frenzies (see: The Decision, The Melodrama), it’s that the star athlete does hold the power. All of it.
3) How will the situation affect the Cardinals season? (With the important corollary: does the Cardinals season have any bearing on Pujols’s situation?)
Let me just say that Pujols’s mid-February deadline for negotiations was so that, to quote Pujols, “there wouldn’t be any distractions during the season.” To me, the only way to avoid the contract distraction is to sign the contract. Otherwise, it’s either the unknown everyone is talking about, or the largest-ever elephant in the room. How can it not be a distraction, any less than it was for LeBron or Carmelo? In the case of the King, the Cavs at least managed to put it aside enough to win 61 games and advance to the Eastern Conference Semifinals.
The Cardinals will perform similarly (minus Pujols quitting on his team in its biggest game and holding an hour-long “Me-TV” special weeks later in spite of it), but their finish won’t impact Pujols’s future destination, World Series or not. Pujols may not be bigger than a franchise, but he dwarfs a measly second ring.
4) How do we view the Matt Holliday money?
When the Cardinals gave Holliday his 7 year, $120 million deal last January, most believed St. Louis had overextended by two years. I argued that the seven years the Redbirds gave Holliday were worth the five good years he would give them as protection for Pujols. In other words, the contract was as much about insuring Albert as hauling-in Holliday.
Now, with the prospects of Albert’s staying seemingly less certain than a year ago, do we still see the Holliday contract as insurance? Or is it replacement money? We know one thing: Cardinals GM John Mozeliak certainly didn’t forget who his first baseman was — and when his contract expired — when he signed his star outfielder….
5) Do the Cardinals even need Pujols?
I know, I know: blasphemy. I thusly saved it for last. Without a doubt, Pujols is one of the top four or five hitters to ever play Major League Baseball (Ruth, Aaron, Williams, and Bonds* being the others). Cardinals fans know this and rejoice in it more than anyone. But Cardinals fans also bristle at the notion that Pujols is bigger than, or somehow defines, their organization, that the Cardinals have to sign him: 10 World Series titles, a history dating to 1900, names like Hornsby, Medwick, Musial, Gibson, Brock, Ozzie, Big Mac*…even those pristine little red birds…beg otherwise. (This isn’t, after all, the Cavaliers.) The point is that the Cardinals have been alive and well long before Jose Alberto Pujols put on a uniform, and will be just fine when he leaves.
But, boy, they sure would love to keep him. They’ll just have to cough up around $300 million to do it.
Leave a Reply