Report: Aggressive Miami Marlins Still Plan To Pursue Albert Pujols
The Miami Marlins reportedly agreed to terms on a 6-year, $106 million deal with shortstop Jose Reyes on Sunday, but their free agent spending spree is far from over, according to Jayson Stark of ESPN.com.
"Even after signing Reyes," Stark tweeted, "Marlins now plan to make aggressive push to sign Pujols, sources say."
All offseason, the word was that the Marlins would spend lavishly, attempting to implement a new attitude and approach to go with the new uniforms and new name, and -- most importantly -- to help fill the new stadium. Spending for Pujols after investing that much in Reyes would go a long way in completely changing the culture of the team.
A tweet from Yahoo! Sports' Jeff Passan puts in perspective just how different this offseason has already been for the Marlins:
Between 2006 and 2009 -- that's four seasons -- the Marlins' combined opening day payrolls were $104.2M. Tonight they gave Jose Reyes $106M.
ESPN's Stark retweeted a reader named Katie Sharp, who makes a similar observation from a slightly different financial perspective:
$133M spent by the Marlins already is as much as they spent in previous 9 offseasons COMBINED ('02-10, approx.)
