Angels reveal roles Albert Pujols will fulfill under personal-services contract

Albert Pujols will work with young players at the Angels’ academy in the Dominican Republic and tutor big leaguers and minor leaguers during spring training in Arizona as part of the retired slugger’s 10-year, $10-million personal-services contract with the team, club president John Carpino said.

“He’ll be like a team ambassador,” Carpino said Monday at the Pelican Hill Golf Club in Newport Beach, which hosted a celebrity tournament to benefit the MLB Youth Academy in Compton. “We’re real excited about the possibilities moving forward. He’s Albert Pujols. It’s an asset. He has a ton of baseball knowledge.”

The personal-services contract is linked to the 10-year, $240-million deal that Pujols, 42, signed with the Angels before 2012 and that Pujols plans to honor despite owner Arte Moreno’s intentions of selling the team and the disappointing end to the first baseman’s nine-plus-year tenure in Anaheim.

The personal-services deal essentially gives the Angels exclusive rights to Pujols during the first 10 years of his retirement. When asked if it would preclude Pujols from doing similar work for the St. Louis Cardinals, the team Pujols starred with for 11 years before signing with the Angels, Carpino said, “Possibly.”

Do the Angels intend to block Pujols from working with Cardinals players and making appearances on behalf of the team?

“I don’t know,” Carpino said. “It’s something we can probably work out with him and the Cardinals.”

Pujols was among several former Angels — including outfielders Torii Hunter and Gary Matthews Jr., manager Mike Scioscia and coaches Mickey Hatcher and Ron Roenicke — who participated in Monday’s golf event. He declined an interview request before teeing off and was not available afterward.

Carpino said he spoke with Pujols about the personal-services contract a few months ago and that both parties agreed to move forward with the arrangement.

Asked if Pujols has expressed a desire to maintain his strong ties to the Cardinals, whose cap is expected to adorn Pujols’ Hall-of-Fame plaque, Carpino said, “No, he hasn’t brought that up.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Albert Pujols receives the 2022 Stan Musial Lifetime Achievement Award at the <a href="https://twitter.com/MusialAwards?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MusialAwards</a>: “St. Louis will always have my heart.” <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/stlcards?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#stlcards</a> <a href="https://t.co/71IXFh0kyk">pic.twitter.com/71IXFh0kyk</a></p>&mdash; Tom Ackerman (@Ackerman1120) <a href="https://twitter.com/Ackerman1120/status/1594166260039753728?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 20, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Saw Alex Reyes was non tendered. Another Mo faberge egg that never panned out.

Considering that every Cardinals top prospect in the last 10 plus years has been a disappointment at best and a bust more often, I'm not going to get my hopes up for Walker.

Would you all trade Gorman, Burleson, Hudson, and Montgomery to the Athletics for Brown and Murphy?

Dafuq?

Burleson is more valuable than brown straight up. So throw Gorman, Montgomery and Hudson in there for Murphy as well?

This is an awful idea.

I dont think Gorman, Montgomery, and Hudson for Murphy is all that crazy. That would probably favor the Cardinals in value.

The A's would never do it though. They aren't trading 3 years of the 2nd best catcher in the game to get Gorman and just 1 year of Montgomery and 2 years of Hudson. If they trade him, its going to be for pure prospects, they aren't competing right now.

Montgomery has far more value for the Cardinals than he does the A's, yes.

Hudson has no value to anyone, IMO. You could've justified non-tendering that guy, IMO. But at somewhere between $2.7 and $3.2 million(ish), there's an okay chance he gives you that much value as a long-reliever. I just can't stand the guy.

But the 'headliner' of a deal for Murphy's unlikely to be any more valuable than Gorman is. The FA class for catchers is actually pretty decent this year. Contreras, Narvaez, Vazquez, Barnhart, Hedges, Alfaro and even Roberto Perez - they're all starting caliber catchers, though it kinda depends on what you're looking for when you pick which one you want. Someone like Perez is a damn nice receiver and catch and throw guy, but can't hit.

And Gorman, while not a 'pure prospect', comes with 6 years of team control and was a top 35 prospect last season before his callup.

They're not getting a top 25 guy for Murphy. But it's moot anyway - the Cardinals can't give up Montgomery in that deal either way. That's 180+ innings of probably 15% better than league average SP performance. That's a solid #3 starter.

While the A's don't have a ton of use for that, the Cardinals damn sure do.

I'd sign Narvaez, Barnhart or Vazquez well before I made that deal. And if I'm looking at the trade market, I'm looking at Danny Jansen well before I make that deal.

Now if it's Gorman straight across for Murphy? Or hell, throw Hudson in there - like I said, I don't give a shit about that guy - done.

But I ain't giving up my 3rd (probably 2nd) SP and then making a bad DH swap of Burleson for Brown to boot.

Here is why I asked. I know just another podcaster but here is the "rest of the story" behind why I was asking.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rtlFkZFDLS4?start=983" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I don't think the value is all that far off, but it just doesn't make sense from the A's POV.

If you are the A's looking at the Cardinals for players in a Murphy deal it's almost assuredly starting with Winn, one of Graceffo/Hence or Liberatore if you are lucky, and whatever down on the farm prospects it takes to seal the deal.

You would hope the A's like Gorman to take Winn out but I don't think Gorman has as much value as that site wants to believe. He's a god awful defender who's offense is limited by his 32% K rate. He's a DH.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">A magical farewell season in his return to St. Louis.<br><br>The NL Comeback Player of the Year is Albert Pujols! <a href="https://t.co/cbyUkSbYqq">pic.twitter.com/cbyUkSbYqq</a></p>&mdash; MLB (@MLB) <a href="https://twitter.com/MLB/status/1595191554674655233?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 22, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/STLCards?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#STLCards</a> are active in the free agent shortstop market, sources say, as I reported earlier today on <a href="https://twitter.com/MLBNetwork?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MLBNetwork</a>.</p>&mdash; Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) <a href="https://twitter.com/jonmorosi/status/1599820715360153607?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 5, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

How long until Bozo Mo's press conference about coming in 2nd for Trea Turner?

11 years, $300 million for Turner through his age 40 season. Yikes.

Yikes isn't exactly how I would describe it. They've got Harper at $25M and Turner at $27M against the tax in an era where players are pushing for $35M+.