Angels owner Moreno discusses Pujols megadeal in interview

Angels owner Arte Moreno touches upon many things in an interview with GQ.com, including paying Albert Pujols $30 million when he's 41, how he could afford to pay Pujols so much money and why the Angels didn't check up on rumors that Pujols is actually older than he says.

By Matt Snyder

Mar 20, 2012 at 11:14 pm ET • 2 min read

Angels owner Arte Moreno made a huge splash this offseason when he landed free agent slugger Albert Pujols on a 10-year, $254 million deal. Oh yeah, he also signed free agent pitcher C.J. Wilson to a measly five-year, $77.5 million deal.

Naturally, someone has called him the new Steinbrenner, and it was GQ magazine in the headline of an interview piece. They even put it as such: "A NEW (NICE!) STEINBRENNER."

Moreno discusses marketing to young kids since the Dodgers have been L.A.'s team for 50 years, firing Tony Reagins from the general manager post, the Mike Napoli-Vernon Wells trade and not bidding on Yu Darvish.

Most of all, though, Moreno obviously discusses the mega-contract he handed Pujols.

• On Pujols possibly not putting up near the numbers he did last decade in St. Louis for this next decade: "We don’t look at one player, we look at twenty-five on the roster or nine on the field, and you just say: If he plays within these averages for our team, his averages are so much higher than anyone else’s that is playing right now. If you do have some erosion -- let’s call it seven to ten years of solid production, not superstar production -- look what it still does for a franchise."

• On paying Mr. Pujols $30 million in the season he turns 41 years old: "Someone else asked me this, and I said, 'I’ll tell you something: If he’s healthy enough and he’s playing for us, then I’m gonna just say, ‘Merry Christmas to all baseball fans,’ because we get to see one of the best players of our generation coming to bat."

• On being able to afford the contract: "We’d just signed an 18-plus-year [TV deal, reportedly for $1.5 billion], through ‘30, we have no debt, and we have a payroll that gives us all the flexibility to make the decisions we want to make."

• Finally, Moreno was asked about the speculation that Pujols is actually older than he says. The Angels did not check into this. Here's Moreno's rationale as to why: "We would never go there. He’s been in the United States since he was 16. Somebody starts checking on your age you start wondering, Do we really want to have a relationship like this?"

Full interview: GQ.com