Tom Ricketts Indirectly Talks About Pujols; State Of Cubs

Chicago Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts was on hand this morning when the Cubs began their first full squad workout of Spring Training. Of course, the question that is on everyone’s mind is will the Cubs be bidders for Albert Pujols next winter? Ricketts talked about the financial flexibility for next winter, as well as what he anticipates out of the 2011 season. After all, we do have to wait a full season before we have any resolution on the Pujols frenzy.

"“Really the theme for the team this year is for the last six weeks of 2010, we were one of the best teams in baseball,” he said. “And we have that team back, that manager back, and we’ve added to it, so I think we build on that momentum. We use the next 40 days to really get ready for the season, to come into the season with a sense of purpose, and a sense of pride and get off to a quick start and have a great year.” Chicago Breaking Sports"

While the Cubs did finish 24-13 in their last 37 games, I don’t think that was a good measuring stick for them. One of the key rules in baseball is not to put too much stock into the last month of the season. If you ask me, the Cubs are guilty of doing just that. While I do like the hiring of Mike Quade, it was made off the what Quade did in the last month of the season. No offense to Quade and his managerial skills, but all of those games were meaningless for the Cubs.

Even though we are still a month away from Opening Day, for some fans, the focus is already on winter of 2012. More specifically, when Albert Pujols is expected to hit the open market as a free agent, barring a last minute deal with the St Louis Cardinals.  Ricketts did his best to address the Cubs financial flexibility for the 2012 off-season.

"As for the possibility of a long-term megadeal, Ricketts said there would be more “financial flexibility” next offseason, but deferred to Hendry. He said he’d be “open-minded” about handing out such a deal, without being specific. Of course, the player everyone is talking about is St. Louis slugger Albert Pujols, who is on the market next November, barring a late signing by the Cardinals.Referring to long-term contracts in general, Ricketts said “any owner would say the length of the deal is often a bigger problem than the amount of dollars, so you’re going to have to be very careful if you’re going to sign one of those longer deals. If you’re going to take on  a guy for seven, eight, nine years, you better make sure that’s the guy you want.” Chicago Breaking Sports"

Per MLB tampering rules, Ricketts did not go into detail on Pujols saying ” All I know is what I read in the paper. I guess it’ll just have to sit until the end of the season.” Nonetheless, Ricketts did not say that the Cubs won’t be interested in Pujols. The thing that I found most interesting is when Ricketts said it is the years not the money that is greatest concern on long term deals.

In recent weeks, we here at Cubbies Crib have suggested that the Cubs may offer less years for Pujols, but for more money. From the sounds of it, that would seem to be what Ricketts is planning to do with Pujols. One offer that has been rumored about is a potential 7 year deal, worth $238 million. In that scenario, Pujols would average $34 million a season. That would be the best scenario for the Cubs, as then they would not be locked into a deal that brings Pujols past age 40.

While the Pujols situation does provide incredible intrigue for the Cubs and all of baseball, lets just focus on the 2011 Cubs before we worry about 2012. With that said, we still will probably have a season worth of Pujols rumors to digest before we discover a concrete answer.