THE WATERCOOLER
Last week we discussed what the Cardinals should offer Albert Pujols in a contract extension. This week, given some of the comments made by Cardinals president Bill DeWitt III and GM John Mozeliak, we get down to brass tacks on the business side of things and ask …
QUESTION: If the Cardinals are serious about making Albert Pujols a Cardinal for life, what kind of dollars and years do you think it will take in his next contract to get it done?
JOE STRAUSS
A sense of deja vu sweeps over me as I feel I’ve answered this question before. It must have been somewhere else. Has to be.
Anyway, Albert’s representation will likely concede little to Alex Rodriguez’s 10-year, $275 million deal that also comes with $30 million in “marketing” bonuses attached. Pujols will be 31 when his current deal expires after the 2011 season and (barring signing an extension beforehand) enter the first year of his new contract at 32. One would think a six-year deal in order, maybe seven, at a minimum $27 million per. One wonders if Albert will play the deferred money game again after deferring without interest for a portion of his current deal. This contract (7 years/$100M) currently leaves him with the game’s 19th-largest contract, but only its 29th highest average annual value. The Cardinals have enjoyed quite a bargain for quite some time. Albert is now the fourth-highest paid first baseman, trailing the less experienced, less celebrated and less complete Ryan Howard. El Hombre may dust off his reminder from the 2004 Winter Warm-Up, uttered a month before agreeing to his current contract: “There are no breaks. This is business.”
DERRICK GOOLD
I essentially asked this question of Cardinals chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. a week ago, and his answer was this: “It will obviously be a lengthy and substantial one.” It goes without saying it will also be unlike any contract the Cardinals have ever offered a player and, quite possibly, unlike any contract out there. There’s no precedent, no blueprint for signing the best player in the game at his peak to a de facto lifetime contract.
There are, as discussed before, some hints. At 25, Alex Rodriguez signed a monstrous 10-year, $252-million deal with Texas. Such salad (read: lettuce, as in green) days are gone. But Rodriguez is currently on a 10-year, $275-million re-tooled contract that pays him $32 million next season and $31 million in 2011, what would be the first year of Pujols’ re-negotiated deal. Rodriguez’s salary steps down from there, opening the window for Pujols to be the highest-paid player in the game by averaging more than $24 million a year. The other indicator that comes from Rodriguez’s deal is the $30 million in bonuses he could receive for home-run milestones such as 714, 755 and the Barry Bonds’ record. Pujols could have that same structure built in — along with a substantial “Triple Crown” bonus.
On the other end of the spectrum is Mark Teixeira’s eight-year, $180-million deal. Teixeira plays the same position, is considered an impact hitter, and would tell you himself that Pujols is in another stratosphere as a hitter. As Pujols’ agent told me recently: “The money is going to be there.” The question will be how the team outfits the roster around Pujols and how inventive the team is with the bonuses and contract offered Pujols.
RICK HUMMEL
If it’s going to be a lifetime deal, then assume that Pujols, coming up on 30 years old, would want that contract to extend eight and possibly 10 years. Let’s say an average of $26 million a year or $260 million for a 10-year deal and nearly $210 million for eight years. Backloaded, of course.
BERNIE MIKLASZ
At least one dollar more than the deal Mark Teixeira received from the Yankees. That contract was 8 years, $180 million.
BRYAN BURWELL
I would have to think that even the most frugal among us would have to assume the fair market for Pujols would begin with a $20 million a year price tag and then work from there. The more difficult thing is going to be determining the length of the deal.

