John Heyman of Sports Illustrated reported last night that the Cardinals had offered Albert Pujols an eight-year contract worth in excess of $240 million.The contract was still considerably short of what the Pujols camp was expecting, and probably wouldn't have been able to make him sign on the dotted line. But as Jeff Sullivan wrote, it was a start.
Speculation is that the eight-year contract offer is worth under $240 million, total. That figure can't be confirmed, and Pujols probably isn't going to take it, but it's the biggest offer the Cardinals have made to date, suggesting that an agreement may actually be reached before Pujols reports to camp. If nothing else, the odds are at least a little better now than they were a few hours ago before word of this offer had leaked.
That seemed all well and good, because it at least showed that the two sides were making progress. But then, just a few hours later, the report was refuted by Yahoo's Tim Brown.
Source close to Pujols camp: Reports of a Cardinals offer today to Pujols is, "inaccurate, reckless and outrageous."
As Sullivan pointed out, it's impossible to know which "source" is correct in this instance, but the second one sure seems a lot angrier. That may mean that he is actually right, or that he is just trying to put up a front. Who knows?
Meanwhile, in the world of certainties, the deadline to sing Albert Pujols to a contract extension is just about an hour and a half away, and we don't know either way what is going to happen. It might be fun if there wasn't so much on the line.