Cardinals must find way to keep Pujols

Joel Sherman
Blog: Hardball

HARDBALL

Cardinals players flung themselves in joy upon one another, the final out of World Series Game 7 having found Allen Craig in left field. St. Louis had its 11th championship -- and its 11th hour.

It was hard not to notice the cruelty of the baseball clock mingling with the euphoria of accomplishment.

On Friday night the Cardinals celebrated and in 24 hours -- 12:01 a.m. today to be exact -- arguably their best player ever would be a free agent. This was the hovering storyline of St. Louis’ year as it rallied from 10 1/2 games back on Aug. 24 to win the wild card on the final day of the regular season and went the distance to be the last team standing in the postseason.

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KEEP THE CARD: Joel Sherman says Albert Pujols belongs in St. Louis and the Cardinals should do everything they can, without hurting the future of the franchise to keep their star.

Now all the on-field work was done. Yet Albert Pujols still deflected questions, acted as if they were gate crashers at a party. When negotiations broke off in spring the two sides had agreed to table talks and public discussions of the contract until the offseason. Well, even with the champagne spilling, the offseason was now here; cold business about to push aside cold bubbly.

Pujols remained dismissive of the subject, but his manager, Tony La Russa said: “We never talked about it. The season is over now, it’s time to start talking about it. They’re going to try and make it work and we’ll see if it can work or not. But they’re both [the organization and Pujols] great, and the organization is going to try to keep him here, and Albert wants to stay here, and best effort, we’ll see if comes off or not.”

If you are a baseball fan, root for the home team to win this one, too; for the Cardinals to figure out how to keep their iconic star without endangering their long-term future. The game is better when there is this kind of identity. We should think of Pujols as we imagine Stan Musial or Bob Gibson. As Cardinals and nothing else -- from our memory banks to their plaques in Cooperstown.

And if this World Series underscored anything, this would be best for Pujols, as well. He exposed to the nation again that he is a prickly star with basically his own rules who is well protected by La Russa and the organization. His long drives might fly anywhere, but I am not so sure about his act.

Both sides have said they want each other. But that is standard procedure. CC Sabathia and the Yankees have done the same as have Jose Reyes and the Mets, and pretty much every free agent and their club. And then 12:01 a.m. today comes and we begin to see truer intentions. Other organizations begin to seduce and the impact of agents truly begins to matter; especially the specter of Scott Boras.