Deidre Pujols made a radio appearance on 99.1 Joy FM in St. Louis on Monday morning, and discussed her and her husband's decision to leave St. Louis. She said that the city has been "deceived," and that the media is feeding misleading information about the Cardinals' contract offer that was turned down by Pujols.
She said that the Cardinals expressed a desire to make Pujols a "Cardinal for life" earlier this winter, but then offered just a five-year, $130 million deal, catching the family by surprise.
"When you have somebody say, 'We want you to be a Cardinal for life,' and only offer you a five-year deal, it kind of confused us," she said. "Well, we got over that insult and felt like Albert had given so much of himself to baseball and into the community…we didn't want to go through this again. Free agency is so stressful. I am not mad or haven't lost any respect for Bill [Dewitt, Jr.] or the organization."
The Cardinals reportedly increased their offer to 10 years and $210 million, still far less than the $254 million the Angels have agreed to pay the three-time MVP over the course of his contract. But Deidre Pujols insists that had the Cardinals' offer come with a guarantee, rather than with $30M deferred without interest, her husband would still be playing in St. Louis.
"Albert and I never, not one time ever, made plans to leave this city," she said. "We had no reason, not one reason, to want to leave…People were deceived by the numbers."
