Cardinals sign Pujols and sons to lifetime contracts
The St. Louis Cardinals made a big splash earlier this offseason by landing the biggest fish on the free-agent market. Thursday, they made sure the biggest catch they already had will never get away.
With less than a week before the team opens the 2010 campaign in Cincinnati, the Cardinals announced that they extended Albert Pujols to a lifetime contract. Pujols, who was set to become a free agent after the 2011 season, will earn $30 million each year for the rest of his career with the birds on the bat on his chest.
In wrapping up the three-time MVP, the Cardinals took an additional and unexpected step in signing both of their marquee player’s young sons to lifetime contracts, as well. Albert Jr., 9, who goes by “AJ,” and his brother Ezra, born Feb. 5, will report to the team’s rookie affiliate when they come of age, though they will occasionally appear at spring training in the meantime. Because of child-labor laws, specifics of the boys’ deal were not disclosed.
“We thought we had done a lot by keeping Matt [Holliday], but fans still doubted our commitment,” said chairman Bill Dewitt, Jr. “By signing all of the males in the Pujols family, we wanted to demonstrate to our fans that they don’t ever have to worry about our commitment to winning.”
General manager John Mozeliak echoed Dewitt’s comments.
“With the way the marketplace for young talent is today, we wanted to lock in not only Albert but the opportunity to have AJ and Ezra continue in their father’s footsteps, as Cardinals,” Mozeliak said.
The amateur signings intrigued Baseball America’s Jim Callis, who noted that “the unusually young age of the boys makes it difficult to project their future performance,” the Pujolses will boost the team’s farm system ranking back into the top 10.
Jeff Luhnow, the Cardinals’ VP of Amateur Scouting and Player Development, took credit for the signing. “Although technically the boys were born in the US, they have Dominican heritage. Sure, Albert helped us with the initial contact, but AJ and Ezra appreciated what we are doing with Latin players and wanted to be a part of it. Our system is clearly working.”
“We’re all very happy,” Pujols said. “Everybody agreed on it. I’m just happy. I’m glad it’s over. Now it’s time to play baseball and concentrate on the season.”
Said AJ, “Now it’s time to go to school and concentrate on my spelling test.”
Ezra was nursing and was unavailable for comment.
For the press conference, Dewitt admitted that he considered using the jersey of infamous midget Eddie Gaedel for AJ. The jersey originally belonged to Dewitt when he was a nine-year-old batboy for the St. Louis Browns.
“Cardinal baseball is all about tradition,” he said. “I wanted to keep it in the family, but Albert reminded me that AJ has a special clause in his contract whereby we outfit him for public events in new clothes from Gap Kids.”
The Cardinals are expected to announce another deal soon that would bring hitting coach Mark McGwire’s seven-year-old son Max to the team as a special instructor upon his graduation from high school.