Albert Pujols: Bidding War for Slugger Should End with Cubs Victory

The biggest free agent of this year’s group is Albert Pujols. He will bring a World Series championship to the team that signs him to his last contract. The team that he will bring that World Series title to is the Chicago Cubs.  

Recently there have been two teams that have been in the market for Pujols. The first being his former team, the St. Louis Cardinals. With the second being the biggest spenders of this free agent period, the Miami Marlins.  

However, it’s the Cubs who have swooped in recently to throw their name into serious contention for Albert.  

According to ESPN-Chicago:

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The St. Louis Post-Dispatch was the first to report that the Cubs spoke with Pujols' agent, Dan Lozano, on Monday and made a qualifying offer.

Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein wouldn't confirm the offer.

"[Lozano] also represents Rodrigo Lopez, so if you see somebody going into someone's room, it's not always to talk about the Big Kahuna," said Epstein, who admitted he was hoping to bring Lopez back to the team to add depth to a paper-thin starting rotation. "But yeah, we met with Danny."

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That quote from Epstein could be looked at two ways. One, that he is downplaying the fact that he met with Pujols’ agent. Why would he be so discrete in talks about Rodrigo Lopez? No one, outside of Lopez’s family, would care if the Cubs solidified their starting rotation with that signing.  

Two, that these contract talks are in their beginning stages. It’s been reported, in that same ESPN-Chicago piece, that the Marlins have made a 10-year offer to Pujols. If everything sounded great, wouldn’t Pujols have signed with Miami?  

We also know that St. Louis threw nine years, $200 million dollars at their slugger, only to see Albert say, “Thanks but no thanks.” 

With Theo in charge of Chicago’s pitch to land this future Hall-Of-Fame player, it should give that extra advantage to bring him to the Cubs. With Albert playing in Chicago he becomes the biggest athlete in one of the biggest markets. If he can bring the Cubs their first World Series championship in 104 years, it will put him as the biggest sport icon in Chicago History.  

Pujols will sign with a team that can give him a huge contract, plus give him a great chance at winning another championship. The best place to do that isn’t in Miami or St. Louis.  

It’s with the team that upon hearing of his signing will have already started to make a statue of him, the Chicago Cubs. 

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