Albert Pujols Discusses His Future

8:22pm: MLB.com’s Matthew Leach gathered a ton of relevant quotes from Albert during the first baseman’s sitdown with reporters on Sunday.

"Do I want to be in St. Louis forever? Of course," Pujols said.  "People from other teams want to play in St. Louis and they’re jealous that we’re in St. Louis because the fans are unbelievable. So why would you want to leave a place like St. Louis to go somewhere else and make $3 or $4 more million a year? It’s not about the money. I already got my money. It’s about winning and that’s it."

5:59pm: Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols was reluctant to speak about his future with the club during the annual Winter Warm-Up in St. Louis back in January.  Well, Sunday morning he opened up a bit more to the Associated Press, via USAToday.com.

"It’s not about the money all the time," the first baseman said. "It’s about being in a place to win and being in a position to win.  If the Cardinals are willing to do that and put a team (on the field) every year like they have, I’m going to try to work everything out to stay in this town. But if they’re not bringing championship caliber play every year, then it’s time for me to go somewhere else that I can win… When I signed my contract I was really happy with what I got.  When that time comes (for another contract) then we’re going to figure it out."

MLBTR had a nice discussion on Albert’s free agent value earlier this winter.  Barring an extension, El Hombre will be free to test the market after the 2011 season.  A .334/.425/.624 career hitter, he is currently just 29 years old.