St. Louis Cardinals on the clock in Albert Pujols negotiations - ESPN

Senor Sluggo is looking for $300 million.

If I were the GM of a contending team, I would have no problem paying him $30 million per year - but not for ten years. Hell, I would even have done the ten-year deal five years ago, but the man is now 31 years old. Nonetheless, it will simply redefine the market if Pujols does become a free agent. Excluding the controversial Barry Bonds, Albert is the best offensive player since Mickey Mantle, so somebody out there will be willing to shell out that kind of money to win a bidding war for his services.

Pujols is tied with Mantle for sixth in adjusted career OPS+. The only players above him are Bonds, Ruth, Gehrig, Hornsby, and Teddy Ballgame. That is lofty company, indeed. To be fair, Pujols will probably fall to a lower spot on that list as time goes on, particularly if he gets a ten-year contract. Just about all baseball careers include a phase at the end when all the percentage-type stats decline because the 40ish ballplayer is just not as good as he was in his youth. There are very few exceptions. I can think of only two offhand:

• Koufax had no such phase because he quit while on top (he won 26 and 27 in this last two years).
  
• Barry Bonds actually started to get better in his late 30s because ... well, I think we all know the reason. His lifetime percentages soared every year from ages 35-39. In his final year, at age 42, his OPS was 1.045, almost right at his career average, and he actually managed to raise his career on-base percentage that year!