27
2011
If You Could Sign Albert Pujols, Would You?
An article by 
This is all HYPOTHETICAL (for all those reading impaired individuals)
Albert Pujols is one of the best, if not THE BEST, hitter our generation has ever seen. I completely expect the Cardinals to re-sign Albert Pujols to a contract worth over $200 million for 7-8 years. Let’s get a little hypothetical on this dark and rain-soaked afternoon.
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For one minute let’s pretend Albert Pujols and his agent reached out to all major league teams. And of course they will all talk, this is obvious. When I say “reach out”, I mean contact teams with an open mind of acquiring Pujols. I’m sure the Cardinals will lock him up fairly quickly, but let’s pretend Pujols’ representatives actually test the waters.
Now let’s pretend your the General Manager of the New York Mets. Fred Wilpon comes to you and say’s you have an unlimited budget to sign Albert Pujols and structure the team around him.
Do you do it? It mean’s Jose Reyes is not returning for sure. It also means Ike Davis is either being moved to RF or traded.
Lucas Duda, who was a big part of the 2011 Mets, will probably be your right fielder. He may very well be able to handle LF. Could you trade Bay?
Would you trade Jason Bay for A.J. Burnett? If the Yankees can lock up C.C. and one of Yu Darvish or C.J. Wilson they may be open to swapping A.J.’s contract for another closely matched contract. Not to mention Bay would rake in Yankee Stadium and he could replace Nick Swisher in RF.
Trade Mike Pelfrey to a team willing to absorb his contract for his potential.
Now you spend the remaining dollars you can squeeze out of Wilpons checkbook plus what you saved on Pelfrey on a bullpen piece or two (think Joe Nathan and Octavio Dotel on cheap deals).
Sign a cheap CF, say Nate McLouth. Done.
This is the 2012 Mets
1B – Pujols
2B – Turner
SS – Tejada
3B – Wright
C – Thole
LF – Duda
CF – McLouth
RF – Davis
Bench – Murphy, Nickeas, Evans, Satin, OF we sign in FA or F-Mart ehh
SP – Santana, Niese, Burnett, Dickey, Gee
RP – Beato, Herrera, Byrdak,
SU – Dotel, Acosta, Parnell
CL – Nathan
If You Could Sign Albert Pujols, Would You?
About the Author: Benjamin Yoel
Graduate of St. John's University. Majored in Sports Management. Torn on where career will take me next. Considering Baseball Operations, Scouting, and Journalism. Writer for Metsmerized Online & StLucieToFlushing.com. Devout #Mets fan.
14 Comments + Add Comment
NL East Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braves | 42 | 28 | .600 | - |
| Nationals | 34 | 35 | .493 | 7.5 |
| Phillies | 34 | 37 | .479 | 8.5 |
| Mets | 25 | 40 | .385 | 14.5 |
| Marlins | 22 | 47 | .319 | 19.5 |
Last updated: 06/18/2013
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I wouldnt even think twice about it. Bye Reyes.
Ah…the key here being money is no object.
If we were somehow the Steinbrenner/Yankee team of the NL, and the owners would spend every last dollar b/c they just had to win, then sure….go ahead and sign Pujols. Mets would be so rich they could also afford to cut him some years down the road if his production was way down and/or fell apart.
Given the fact the reality is money is very much in play, I’d pass.
First, if money were no object, Jose Reyes would be in a Met uniform next year and we’d be buying up all the pitching talent we could. Then getting Pujols might be the last piece that gets us to post season.
But Pujols, with this mediocre pitching, no Jose and the varied other question marks? Even then not so sure it guarantees anything. Cards had him all year and only snuck in at the end b/c they caught fire in Sep and the Braves collapsed. The fact that they made if all the way to the WS is just a testament to the ‘fun’ of what short series can be. If it was about the best teams in a short series, we’d be watching the Yankees vs. Phils again.
If we had “unlimited” budget, I would re-sign Reyes first then go after Pujols. That means you trade Ike for a #1 type pitcher and a #1 type bat in outfield (CF). Why the facination with Burnett. No I do not touch him. Go after a good catcher (Molina) and then maybe a Nathan. You might be able to trade Bay if you eat most of his contract.
None of this is happening, except Reyes we hope . That means we keep Ike and Wright.
I love Albert Pujols. In a vacuum, sure I’d take him on my team any day. He’s an absolute monster.
But in the real world, with the contract he’s going to get and with him already being 32 (and with rumors that he’s older than he claims), no thanks. Superstar player, a future 1st ballot Hall of Famer if he stays healthy but that contract has the potential to be a franchise killer at the backend.
he should retire as a cardinal, that’ll make his careeer greater than what it is.
I totally agree with you on this. There should be players that retire with team they came up with. Pujols, Reyes, Jeter, Rivera, Verlander are a few. I’m sure there are more we can name.
Wow this is the 2nd time this week I agree with Alex.Absolutely positively belongs in St.Louis for the remainder of his career.The greatest right handed hitter since Jimmie Foxx.
Totally never ever going to happy
But i’d consider trading my 1st born for it to happen haha
What happened to not signing old guys past their prime?
well, it isn’t hyptotheical budget wise the way you laid it out. Letting Reyes go, and dumping some other medium contracts (like Pelf) will allow plenty of money for Pujols. So, you are essentially saying dump every contract $$ you can, and give ALbert the 25-30 available, and fill all other holes on the cheap.
I do feel sorry for any CF covering a big park between Ike and Lucas.
You would need Devon White in between the 2 of them.
Zero interest in paying Pujols $200 million for the worst years of his career.
yes I would, and we would still finish around .500 because we have NO PITCHING.
If I didn’t have Ike Davis at first I would definitly go for Pujols.