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Pitchers and catchers will be reporting to Major League Spring Training camps in a little over a month\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time, marking the first real sign of the 2011 season coming to life.\u00c2\u00a0 The days are likely to go slowly for most of us, but not for Cardinals fans.<\/p>\n
Not now.<\/a><\/p>\n Star slugger Albert Pujols\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 contract with the St. Louis Cardinals runs out at the end of the 2011 season.\u00c2\u00a0 No extension has been agreed yet and he announced recently that he had given the Cardinals\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Front Office a deadline for talks to be brought to an end, whether an agreement has been reached or not.<\/p>\n That deadline is the start of Spring Training and the days between now and then will be flying off Cardinals fans\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 calendars.\u00c2\u00a0 As each day passes, the potential nightmare looms a little larger: Albert Pujols might leave St. Louis.<\/p>\n The brief possibility of Wayne Rooney leaving Man Utd a few months ago was nothing compared to this.<\/p>\n Pujols has become such a talismanic figure for the Cards that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s difficult to imagine the team ever playing without him.\u00c2\u00a0 Try picturing him in anything other than Cardinal red and you may be left squinting cross-eyed into space, as if trying to make a fiendish Magic Eye picture appear.\u00c2\u00a0 You know what Pujols looks like and you know the uniforms of the other 29 MLB teams, but the brain refuses to put them together.\u00c2\u00a0 It just wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be right.<\/p>\n The situation is reminiscent of the one Twins fans went through one year ago with hometown hero Joe Mauer.\u00c2\u00a0 That had a happy ending for Minnesota as the catcher signed a lucrative deal to stay with the team until the end of the 2018 season.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more likely than not that the same will happen here.\u00c2\u00a0 Weeks of nerves and remorseless rumours could come to an end with Pujols smiling broadly with a multi-year extension signed, telling everyone he never had any intention of leaving.<\/p>\n However, it might not happen that way.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n Pujols is the best player in the game right now and will get a contract befitting that status if he hits the free agent market.\u00c2\u00a0 It doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t matter how much the Cardinals want to keep him, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll only be able to do so if they can give him a contract extension as jaw-dropping as one of his most brutal blasts with the bat.\u00c2\u00a0 It was\u00c2\u00a0rumoured yesterday<\/a> that the Cardinals might want to keep the deal within $200m.\u00c2\u00a0 That might not be enough. Matching Alex Rodriguez\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 10 year\/$275m contract?\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe dropping a couple of years and pushing the average annual salary to the $30m mark (8 year\/$240m)?\u00c2\u00a0 Either seems possible, plus many further combinations besides.<\/p>\n The idea that the Cardinal\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cannot afford not<\/em> to sign him only goes so far.\u00c2\u00a0 He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one player.\u00c2\u00a0 One truly amazing player, but one player all the same.\u00c2\u00a0 There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s only so much of their overall budget that the Cardinals can send his way, otherwise they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be spending themselves into the second division.<\/p>\n You could point to the Cardinals\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 decision to sign left-fielder Matt Holliday to a 7 year\/$120m contract one year ago as a roadblock, but\u00c2\u00a0 I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see that getting in the way of securing an agreement with Pujols.\u00c2\u00a0 The Cardinals must have spent many an hour working out what it would take to re-sign Pujols before committing to the Holliday contract. It is inconceivable that they would have stretched to that contract if they thought it would stop them offering the deal that they will broadly have had in mind for a while now.<\/p>\n There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no reason to doubt Pujols when he says he wants to stay in St. Louis and he might offer them a small home-town discount to make that happen.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still going to take a substantial commitment though, even without him currently being on the open market and able to field offers from other teams.\u00c2\u00a0 He would be able to take those offers at the end of the 2011 season and the Cardinals know plenty will come his way.<\/p>\n Everyone would want him.\u00c2\u00a0 Take three National League rivals at random. The New York Mets have Carlos Beltran\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s contract coming off the books this winter and Pujols is a sure-bet to cut through the apparent home-run halting effects of Citi Field.\u00c2\u00a0 The Washington Nationals have showed that they are now prepared to spend big money to make an impact.\u00c2\u00a0 They signed Jayson Werth, made a play for Cliff Lee and then went after Zack Greinke this offseason.\u00c2\u00a0 Add Pujols with Ryan Zimmerman, Werth, Stephen\u00c2\u00a0Strasburg and Bryce Harper and you’ve got a reason for fans to flock to Nationals Park.\u00c2\u00a0 Carlos Pena is on a one-year deal with the Cubs so there would be a vacancy at first base at Wrigley come winter.<\/p>\n Okay, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m teasing Cardinals fans with that last one, but it makes the point that this isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a Derek Jeter\/New York Yankees situation where realistically (and after plenty of posturing on both sides) no one else was ever going to match what the Yankees were willing to pay their Captain.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n