Albert Pujols made an appearance at the Cardinals’ “winter warm-up” event this afternoon and naturally the assembled media asked him about his contract status despite the fact that he’s signed through 2011. Here’s what Pujols had to say:
My timetable is when I’m a free agent. Right now we’ve got a couple years. I don’t need to worry about that right now. Right now my job is to let my agent do my talking. We’re open to talk about it. But I’ll tell you: When the season starts we’re not talking about it.
Rarely has there been this much attention paid to the contract status of a player still two full seasons away from free agency, but I suppose everything is a little different for the best player in baseball. For comparison Joe Mauer is merely the best player in the American League, but unlike Pujols he’s just one season away from free agency and yet the Twin Cities media has paid about half as much attention to his contract status.
