Less than four weeks left on Pujols talks

Cardinals position players report (voluntary date) Feb. 19, so that leaves 25 days from now.

Over at ESPN, Jayson Stark offers three possible endgame scenarios.

If he leaves, I'm not the only person who could see him going to the "friendly confines" of Wrigley Field:

"He's a great, great player, and there's nobody quite like him," said an official of one AL team. "And the Cardinals know that if he gets to free agency, is there a player in baseball who would make more sense to the Cubs than Albert Pujols? So it's going to get crazy."

But, other teams may get in. And not just the previous suspects.

"I wouldn't even rule out the Red Sox and Yankees," said one executive. "We're talking about Albert Pujols. I could see them looking at first base, looking at DH and moving people around. I don't think they could let that kind of talent go by."

When there's money, there's a way.

Pujols, earlier this month, said the spring training deadline for negotiations is for the good of the team.

If a deal is done, I see something in the neighborhood of 7 years, $200 million. An option, for more per year, could be 5 years, $150 million. (I'm taking this as straight cash, not deferred money or incentive/marketing bonuses.)

But, the price could be going higher. Stark says Pujols could be baseball's first $300-million man.

Alex Rodriguez type "historical bonuses" could help the Cards complete a deal. Given no Cards-only player has ever hit 500 HRs, and nobody has ever hit 600 in a Redbird uniform, and Lou Brock was the last to 3,000 hits, there's some angles here.

Over six years, barring injury or rapid decline, Pujols will surpass 600 HRs and 3,000 hits, and will easily pass the 1,500 mark in both runs scored and RBIs.

Given that he would be only the third "clean" 600/3,000 player, after Willie Mays and Henry Aaron (making assumptions of some sort about all three), there would be some definite marketing and tie-in dollars.

Of course, just as in A-Rod's case, the players' union would have to sign off on any such contract.

But, even with such a creative deal, how's that affect the Cardinal bottom line?

If they pick up their 2012 options on their biggest stars and pay Pujols 30 million bucks, they would owe nearly $100 million in 2012 to just seven players (Pujols, Matt Holliday, Chris Carpenter, Adam Wainwright, Jake Westbrook, Yadier Molina and Kyle Lohse). So they'd be looking, said an official of one team, at one of the most top-heavy payroll models of modern times.

That said, I don't see them picking up Carp's option. Probaby not Lohse's. Maybe not Molina's.

And, I really don't see a $300 million deal. I'll up a seven-year deal to $210 million or a bit more. But, I really don't see a 10-year deal at that price.

Meanwhile, Redbirds owner Bill DeWitt is coming perilously close to whistling in the dark:

No deal by the start of spring training would not necessarily mean Pujols will be moving on. The Cardinals could sign him after next season and DeWitt expressed confidence that Pujols would not let it affect him on the field.

"If we don't sign him in the next four weeks, that doesn't mean he's not going to be a Cardinal," DeWitt said. "We'd love to sign him tomorrow, or whenever."

"Whenever"? As Pujols himself noted, the media's had this story to kick around for two years, because you've done nothing for two years toward resigning him!