Albert Pujols Arrives At Cardinals Spring Training, Will Play 2011 Without New Contract

The Albert Pujols contract extension negotiations deadline, of course, passed on Wednesday without an agreement having been reached. What’s gone pretty much unknown to this point is the size of any and all offers the Cardinals made to their star first baseman, but Joe Strauss tracked down a few sources:

“More than $200 million” is an interesting statement, since “more” implies “greater than” with no upper bound. However, it’s safe to assume the Cardinals never came close to offering Pujols the ten-year, $300 million contract he was said to be seeking.

Albert Pujols reported to St. Louis Cardinals spring training camp early Thursday morning, the day after his self-imposed negotiations deadline passed without an extension with the team. Pujols showed up at 7:35 a.m., smiling, and said he was feeling “better than ever.”

The Cardinals had until noon on Wednesday to reach a contract extension with Pujols, but 12 p.m. EST came and went without a deal, meaning the three-time MVP will become a free agent after the 2011 season. Pujols has maintained he will not discuss a new contract during spring training or the regular season.

Now that Albert Pujols and the Cardinals have passed Wednesday’s deadline without successfully negotiating a contract, no news will be made on the contract front until after the 2010 season. Of course, that doesn’t mean that speculation won’t be rampant. Before the deadline, in fact, Ken Rosenthal suggested that a Pujols-for-Mark Teixeira trade was a possibility.

At Wednesday’s press conference, though, Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak unequivocally knocked down any possibility of trading Pujols. SI’s Jon Heyman tweets:

Wednesday’s 12 p.m. EST deadline for the St. Louis Cardinals and Albert Pujols to agree on a contract extension came and went, with no agreement, and thus the two sides have ended discussions until after the 2011 season. The inability to reach an agreement is certainly not good news for the Cardinals and their fans, but they still have Pujols for at least one more season, reminds Rob Neyer.

But for now the focus is on the lack of a new deal, necessitating statements issued from both sides. First, from Pujols’ agent, Dan Lozano:

Wait, what? He’s already under contract for this season? And the Cardinals are strong contenders to win another National League Central title? And after this season, the Cardinals will have the same chance as any other team to sign Pujols for 2012 and beyond?

Oh.

Albert Pujols and the St. Louis Cardinals have failed to negotiate a contract before the mutually-imposed 11:00 Central deadline, says ESPN’s Buster Olney. While there is still an hour and change remaining until the deadline, those involved have apparently accepted that a deal will not be reached. Olney tweets:

So, despite reports that Pujols’ camp and the Cardinals front office had been talking throughout the morning, it seems that talks were stalled to the extent that proposals weren’t even being drawn up toward the end. This, of course, does not necessarily mean that this is the superstar’s last year in St. Louis, but this was the Cardinals’ last chance to lock him down before other teams get a crack at him in the Fall.

Weeks ago, Albert Pujols and the Cardinals mutually agreed on a deadline: if the two parties don’t agree, by February 16th at 11 a.m. Central time, on a contract to keep Pujols in St. Louis, negotiations will be off until after the season, when the Cardinals will have to compete with other teams. We’re now fewer than three hours from the deadline with no news of a compromise, but reports of the Cardinals considering an eight-year contract are continuing to surface. From Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

Strauss also reports that Pujols’ agent, Dan Lozano, and the Cardinals’ front office have been talking all morning, but that they still haven’t made much progress:

Earlier Tuesday evening, it was reported that the Cardinals had offered Albert Pujols an eight-year contract, with speculation being that the total value was somewhere under $240 million. It didn’t seem like an offer that Pujols would take, but it did seem like an indication that the Cardinals might ultimately give in to his demands before the Wednesday deadline.

The only problem? The Cardinals may not have made such an offer after all. Says Yahoo!‘s Tim Brown:

Speculation is that the eight-year contract offer is worth under $240 million, total. That figure can’t be confirmed, and Pujols probably isn’t going to take it, but it’s the biggest offer the Cardinals have made to date, suggesting that an agreement may actually be reached before Pujols reports to camp. If nothing else, the odds are at least a little better now than they were a few hours ago before word of this offer had leaked.

Heyman also reported that, at one point, Pujols’ side approached the Cardinals about being given a part of the team before that was deemed too complicated. That certainly would’ve added another level to all this, but it appears we won’t have to worry about it.

It’s an argument that comes up whenever anybody’s trying to negotiate a major deal, but Yahoo!‘s Jeff Passan went ahead and spoke to the MLBPA director Michael Weiner anyway. Said Weiner:

The union doesn’t appear to be involved in any way, here. They’re watching, to be sure, and they’re interested, but they’re not trying to exert any influence. This is all about Albert vs. the Cardinals, and they’re very quickly running out of time.

Albert Pujols has rejected the latest contract offer from the St. Louis Cardinals, and is expected to announce on Tuesday that he will cease negotiating until the end of the season. The sticking point between Pujols and the Cardinals seems to be the length of the contract. Pujols wants a 10-year contract, whereas the Cardinals are not willing to commit to that length and would prefer a six- or seven-year deal.

Matt Holiday, who signed the richest contract in Cardinals history, is willing to defer some of his salary to keep Pujols in St. Louis:

What’s new is that this is the first report we’ve heard of any actual offer. Up until now, we’d heard speculation about terms, but we didn’t know if the Cardinals or Pujols had put anything on the table. It seems the Cardinals have put an offer on the table, and Pujols has turned it down.

Which means the two sides are still far apart with just two days remaining until Pujols’ deadline for talks. The source says that Pujols is holding out for a ten-year contract, while the Cardinals want to limit him to six or seven. A lot could change between now and the deadline as the heat gets turned up, but the gap may be too large to overcome. Indeed, where not even a month ago an agreement seemed inevitable, now the odds of an agreement have never looked longer.

Once again, I have to point out the possibility that this is all off-base. Pujols and the Cardinals have expressed on many an occasion that they will conduct their talks in private, with little being leaked to the media. But so far, no one’s had anything encouraging to say for a few weeks, and all the reports we’re seeing now seem awfully negative. It’s possible that all these journalists are wrong, but it’s unlikely.

So we may be less than a week away from anticipating Albert Pujols as a free agent. The Cardinals, of course, could always try to sign Pujols during their brief window of exclusivity after the season, but if they can’t get anything done now, it’s doubtful they could get something done then with the allure of free agency pounding on the door.

As we all understand, not too long ago Albert Pujols set a Spring Training deadline for contract negotiations with the Cardinals. With a contract, Pujols would remain in St. Louis for just about the rest of his career. Without a contract, Pujols would prepare to enter free agency after the season.

Two weeks ago, ESPN’s Jayson Stark spoke with a number of baseball officials, and the consensus opinion at the time was that Pujols would re-sign. But now Spring Training is sneaking up quickly, and according to Buster Olney, negotiations aren’t going so hot:

If that’s the case, they’ll most likely have to wait another year because Pujols will not accept any trade going forward, according to sources.

As a 10 and 5 guy, Pujols has the right to block any trade that his team tries to make. Of course, if the situation gets tenuous enough and the right situation pops up, you never know. But chances are this is one more sign the team and the player will work it out.

Needless to say, this is an important situation, and everyone in baseball is following along. Jayson Stark went and talked to some of those people in baseball to see what they think is going to happen. The response?

The consensus opinion seems to be that, while the Cardinals will have to give out an absolutely enormous contract, they’ll get this done. And they’ll get this done because they have to, because Pujols is the heart of the team. The Cardinals have seen this situation coming for a long, long time, and while some have wondered whether they can afford to get Pujols signed, the bigger concern is whether they can afford not to. The popular belief is that, no, they cannot.

In February 2004, Pujols signed a seven-year, $100 million contract with the Cardinals that included a $16 million 2011 option. That contract is now entering its final year, and Pujols is staring November free agency in the face. The Cardinals and Pujols have been talking about a deal to keep the first baseman around into the foreseeable future, but the deadline has been put in place because Pujols doesn’t want contract negotiations to become a distraction during the season.

Even if no extension is reached by the start of spring training, it’s still possible that the Cardinals could work to re-sign Pujols after the season and before the free agency market opens. So this isn’t a now-or-never situation. That said, this is clearly St. Louis’ best opportunity to get their icon locked up, and it would be nice for them to keep this from being a story all year long.