When is $200 million over eight seasons not enough? When you're Cardinals' slugger Albert Pujols and you know that there will be some owner out there willing to pay you what you really want: $360 million over ten seasons.
Talks broke off this week between Pujols and representatives of the St. Louis Cardinals and will reportedly not continue at all this season. Pujols does not want to negotiate during the season because he doesn't want any distractions.
No distractions? Yeah, right, Albert. Good luck with that. I'm sure you will only be asked about your contract status every other question between now and the time you decide to finally sign your new deal with whatever team lands your services.
The reason for the impasse is because the Cardinals have stated that their 8 year/$200,000,000 offer is the best they can do, and Pujols, who will be a free agent after the 2011 season, thinks they can do better. $16,000,000 more a year better, and oh yeah, add another two years to that contract offer, please.
It would obviously be the biggest contract in baseball history, and when you consider that Alex Rodgriguez signed a 10 year/ $250,000,000 deal with the Texas Rangers ten seasons ago, Pujols might have a reason to be insulted (all things being relative, of course.)
But to ask a team to pay a 31 year old player that kind of money over that period of time is just insane. I know Pujols is the best player in baseball right now, but there's a pretty good chance he won't have that label in 2021. He'll be 41 years old, and if he's not already out of baseball by then, the sun will surely be setting on his career.
All contracts in baseball are guaranteed so you would think nobody would give him that kind of extended deal at his age.
Think again.
You just know it's going to happen. Some mega market team will be crazy enough to do it. But is it really crazy for a team in the market the size of New York or Los Angeles, with the disparity in revenues in MLB, to sign a player to that kind of deal? They'd almost be crazy not to.
Even if Pujols fizzles out in year 6 or 7 of a contract like that, he's not going to damage a team like the Yankees. They'll just unload him on some poor sap willing to take on a big name for publicity's sake, even if the big name belongs to a washed up has-been.
Unfortunately, it won't be the Cardinals who get to act so foolishly. Not that I have any sympathy for them. They're a mid-market team that has been competing with the big boys for quite some time who, sadly, is about to find out that in baseball, you can't compete with the big boys forever.
Teams like the Cardinals are like your upper-middle class neighbors down the street. Yes, right now, they're more well-off than you. They have the nice house with the in-ground swimming pool and the two cars. They don't necessarily act all high and mighty, but you just know they think they're better than their neighbors who have to live pay-check to pay-check. But those well-to-do types right down the street are only one layoff away from being in the same poor house as their neighbors.
The Cardinals are about to enter the poor house. That's pretty sad because St. Louis is a great baseball town. But Pittsburgh was a great baseball town at one point. So was Cincinnati and Cleveland.
Heck, back in the 90's, when the disparity between the "haves" and the "have nots" was just becoming apparent, the Indians were one of baseball's glamor teams. They had a luxurious new ballpark, competed at the highest level and were World Series contenders every season. But now, they're in the same boat as the Pittsburgh Pirates and most of the other small market teams, trading off high-end pitchers like CC Sabathia and Cliff Lee because they simply could not afford to pay them.
The small market teams have known for years that they can't compete (18 seasons and counting for my Pirates.) The mid-market clubs like the Cardinals will soon realize the same fate.
I don't know how the NFL CBA re-negotiations will turn out, but I just hope the owners remember that in the AFC and NFC Championship games played last month, two of the smallest markets defeated two of the biggest markets and went on to represent the league in the highest rated Super Bowl in history. And nobody really thought it was out of the ordinary, either. Now that's an example of a league that isn't a joke. Let's hope it stays that way.
As for MLB, make sure you turn out the lights before you leave St. Louis, Albert.
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