The courtship of free agent first basemen Albert Pujols has been limited thus far, but the Florida Marlins and the St. Louis Cardinals are two teams that have made confirmed offers to the mega star. Back in January, general manager John Mozeliak and the Cardinals offered Pujols a nine-year, $198 million extension, according to Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, but obviously it was not accepted. Whether the slugger merely wants to test the free agent market and the Cardinals will be willing to revisit that offer is unknown at this point.
The Miami Marlins are the only other team known to have presented a formal offer to Pujols at this point, but it is believed to be for less than what the Cardinals have offered. The Cubs have been implicated as another interested team, but it remains to be seen whether that connection is serious or not.
As for the Cardinals, everything hangs on Pujols at this point:
Multiple agents with clients who interest the Cardinals have said in the past week that they believe the club is waiting to get resolution with Pujols before they can engage in negotiations for their players. Rafael Furcal's agent said his client is willing to wait to a point because he enjoyed playing alongside Pujols with the World Series champs. The Cardinals have remained in contact with Octavio Dotel's agent about the righthanded reliever returning to their bullpen.
via Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
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