The St. Louis Cardinals will be winning the NL Central this season and could end up with the best record in the National League, and a lot of their success has to do with Albert Pujols. They've made big moves like trading for Matt Holliday, not only for the purpose of chasing a World Series championship, but to show Pujols that they're committed to winning as an organization.That's because they know Pujols' contract is up in two years and if they're going to keep him in St. Louis, they need to keep him happy. In a way, Pujols is the LeBron James of baseball. He's a cut above everybody else in the league, and he plays in a smaller Midwestern town that can't pay the big bucks of teams in New York, Los Angeles or Boston. So there's always that worry he's going to leave when his contract is up, which is exactly why the Cardinals have already approached him to talk about an extension.
Team president Bill DeWitt was on St. Louis radio station WXOS and said so himself.
"Albert has two years left but we've also had conversations with him and his representative, and they know that we want Albert to finish his career as a Cardinal," DeWitt said. "He's just really had a remarkable career and he's only 29 so he's got a lot of baseball left over the next number of years and we want to make sure it's in a Cardinal uniform. I know that's what he wants also and he also wants to have a good club around him and I understand that and that's our desire as well and I know Matt (Holliday) feels the same way. There is a business side of playing the game and players need to focus on that but in the end they want to win, and they want to be in good situations and we have a great situation."
A remarkable career doesn't even begin to describe the things Pujols has done since joining the Redbirds. He's only in his ninth season and he has 366 home runs, 1,101 RBI, an average of .334 and an OPS of 1.057. I can't even hit that well in a video game, and this man goes out and does it against the best players in the world night after night.While I don't think Albert would ever leave St. Louis, you never really know until he has the option. I have a feeling he's going to wait and see what the Cardinals do with Holliday this winter before he decides whether or not he's going to sign an extension first.
Or the Cardinals can just go out and win another World Series. That would probably do the trick.
