Albert Pujols offered the St. Louis Cardinals a hometown discount before signing with the Los Angeles Angels, Tony La Russa said this week in an interview on KNBR-AM in San Francisco.
"I know it is true," the retired Cardinals manager said. "Albert was ready to give the Cardinals a tremendous and significant home discount. I am talking about signing for something like $60 or $65 million less than he signed for.
"That's a lot of money he would have walked away from, but even at that level the Cardinals could not have swung it."
La Russa also said Cardinal fans should cheer Pujols in an Angels uniform.
"This guy is a golden person on-and-off the field," said La Russa, who was Pujols' manager for the 11 seasons they were together in St. Louis. "I was never disappointed by him. ... Like I told the Cardinals fans, pull for him unless he is playing your team in the World Series. Then pull against him. Other than that, pull for him."
Pujols signed with the Angels for 10 years, $240 million, and La Russa said the Cardinals couldn't get close to that total.
"I think the Angels came in and swooped him up," La Russa said. "I just think the Cardinals understood they couldn't afford him. Sometimes you got to make that kind of decision. ..."
La Russa, who retired three days after the Cardinals won their 11th World Series, said Pujols made a mistake when he said in 2009 that negotiations would not be about the money he could get as a free agent.
"The fans were really upset with him," La Russa said. "There's still a lot of negativity to it.... (Pujols) made a P.R. mistake when he said it wasn't about the money because you can't say that. ..."
La Russa called Pujols "absolutely as close to perfect as you could expect a player to be for 11 years."
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