Update 2:40 PM: Bob Nightengale of USA Today tweets that the Marlins 10-year offer does exceed $200 million. Should the Marlins succeed in signing Pujols, their payroll could break $100M for the first time in franchise history. Their previous highest opening day payroll was $60.4M in 2005.
Update 4:28 AM: Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch tweets,
“For Cards honks wondering if it’s time to worry about Pujols’ possible exit, my answer: Yes.”
MLB Network’s John Heyman has reported via Twitter that the Marlins have offered Albert Pujols a ten-year deal. That would be one more year than the Cardinals have reportedly offered.
The Marlins continue their complete makeover as they head into their new ballpark in 2012. Even if they don’t sign Pujols, the fact that there are legitimate reports of their efforts to sign him surfacing shows that they are 100 percent committed to building a winner no matter what the cost, it seems.
Apparently the worries about Pujols’s actual age are not a concern for the Marlins. A ten-year deal would put Pujols under contract through his age 42 season.
