Cards, Pujols talking extension

The Post-Dispatch’s Joe Strauss said in a chat Wednesday that the Cardinals have “engaged Pujols and his agent, Dan Lozano, in contract talks.”

Strauss basically cautioned that this in no way means a deal is close or that anything will get done before the season starts, but it’s good to hear there’s already been some dialogue.

What will it take to lock up the game’s best player, and how long of a contract will it be?

I’m guessing the per season amount will be somewhere between $25-30 million. The Cardinals undoubtedly would like to backload the contract as much as possible and try to get Pujols and his agent to agree to receive a couple million dollars per year well after the slugger retires.

How many years will he get? Albert turned 30 last month. Let’s say he gets 10 years. Will a 10-year, $250 million deal be enough? What about eight years, but for a little more annually, say an eight-year, $216 million ($27 million per)? I think the bare minimum is probably an eight-year, $200 million pact ($25 million per).

For argument’s sake, let’s say the two sides agree to the eight-year, $216 million contract, with $3 million per season deferred for every year of the deal. That takes it to $24 million annually from 2012-2019, assuming the eight years is added on to the two years Pujols has left on his deal.

From 2012-2016, Pujols and Matt Holliday would be making a combined $41 million annually between the two of them (extend it to 2017 if the team picks up Holliday’s option). The team has a $15 million option on Chris Carpenter for the 2012 season. Let’s say that’s picked up, bringing the payroll to $56 million. Kyle Lohse will earn a hair under $12 million that year, while Adam Wainwright will make $9 million and Yadier Molina will make $7 million (assuming both of their respective options are picked up).

Totaling all of those deals up for the 2012 season, that means six of your players will make a combined $84 million. If the payroll is stretched to, say, $110 million, that gives you $26 million to spend just on the other 19 players on the 25-man roster (or an average of $1.37 million per player).

Now, it’s certainly possible that Carpenter’s option isn’t picked up or Wainwright and Molina have their deals restructured (or all of the above), but nevertheless, it gives you an idea of how much the front office is going to have to tighten their belts.

Priority No. 1 has to be to re-stock the farm system, because if you want to be a playoff-caliber team, it will be imperative for multiple cost-effective youngsters to provide a significant impact to the big league team when you’re committing so much money to so few players.

Haven’t we heard that before?

Tags: Albert Pujols