This past baseball offseason was nothing.
With all the Cliff Lee, Jayson Werth and Carl Crawford hoopla, quite a lot of money got thrown around at free agents.
However, the St. Louis Cardinals are sitting on the most coveted future free agent in all of baseball -- Albert Pujols. Fortunately for them, he's under their control for all of 2011.
How much will Prince Albert cost next offseason (or possibly before)? The player closest to his career production is Alex Rodriguez. And A-Rod's last contract, signed in late 2007, was for $275 million over 10 years.
A-Rod's 162-game average at the end of that 2007 season was 44 homers and 128 RBI. Pujols clocks in at 42 and 128. However, what separates Albert is his .624 slugging percentage (vs. A-Rod's .578 at the end of the '07 season) and 1.050 OPS (compared to .967 at that point for A-Rod).
Pujols' OPS is the fifth best in baseball history, trailing names like Ruth, Williams, Gehrig and Bonds.
Pujols has said he likes St. Louis, so the Cardinals might get a slight discount. But it wouldn't surprise us if he's the first $300 million player.