The No-Trade Dilemma

Talk about the Albert Pujols contract situation has become so loud and so deafening that I’m about to pull a Pujols myself and start snapping at people. Given that Pujols is set to arrive in Florida for Spring Training on February 19th – and, with it, his imposed deadline – it’s safe to say that the next three weeks will be among the most important weeks in the history of the franchise. At this point, all of baseball breathlessly awaits the Next Move by both sides.

Among the avalanche of articles written recently about the situation, one slipped out this morning that caught my eye. ESPN’s Buster Olney wrote this morning that sources within the organization claim that Pujols has already announced that he will veto any trade tendered by the Cardinals this year. This was, of course, the big risk the team took by not signing him or trading him last year, and it’s clearly blowing up in their faces.

Which leads me to wonder why, with such obvious choices available, the team chose this particular path into an inescapable ravine of expense and turgid drama. All things being equal, did they play their (ahem) cards correctly in approaching this monumental contract?

What do you think?