Alright, it's official now.
Theo Epstein reached out to Albert Pujols' people Tuesday afternoon to express their interest in the slugger.
Allegedly. Always have to throw that in there with these rumor-type posts.
Right now, only the St. Louis Cardinals and Miami Marlins are among the teams that have publicly pursued Pujols.
Even if the Cubs do not truly aim to sign Pujols, by getting into the action, that drives up the price for the three-time MVP. A price most expect the Cardinals to wind up paying.
It's never a bad thing to force your biggest rival to pay millions more than they were originally hoping to do. Maybe that's all Theo and Co. are doing here. Or maybe there's some real interest because of the new spending cap on the amateur draft.
I wish I knew for sure one way or the other. But nobody knows for sure. Just Theo, Jed Hoyer and their inner circle.
MLB
If I could read minds, I could get to the bottom of this. I'll start working on that and get back to you.