The Los Angeles Angels will sign three-time National League MVP Albert Pujols to a 10-year contract worth at least $254 million, according to several reports.
Yahoo! Sports and ESPN reported the blockbuster deal.
The Cardinals exercised a $16 million option on Pujols' contract after last season. The slugger rejected a multiyear extension that included a small percentage of the franchise over the winter and cut off negotiations on the first day of spring training.
Pujols' numbers in nearly every major offensive category are on a three-year decline, but he remains among the game's elite players. He hit 37 home runs last season, running his 30-homer streak to 11 years, and batted .299 with 99 RBIs. He led the Cardinals' improbable late-season surge and became only the third player to hit three home runs in a World Series game.
Pujols had been courted heavily by the Miami Marlins, too, who also offered a 10-year deal, reportedly worth more than $200 million.
One potential hang-up to a deal with the Marlins, however, was Pujols' reported desire for a no-trade clause. Marlins' president David Samson has said repeatedly that the team will not budge from its policy against no-trade clauses.
According to the Miami Herald, the Marlins met briefly with the commissioner’s office to go over a contract proposal "that has been described as creative, could involve deferred money, and will not contain the no-trade clause that Pujols requested. But it is a 10-year deal that would continue paying Pujols until he’s 42."
Includes some reporting from the Associated Press.
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