Major League Baseball

Angels in lengthy negotiation for Pujols

Published Dec. 7, 2011 12:00 a.m. ET

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The most compelling question of the baseball offseason — Where is Albert Pujols going to sign? — isn’t nearly as straightforward as it seemed.

Sources told FOXSports.com on Wednesday evening that the Los Angeles Angels, a team barely mentioned as a possible suitor until the past 24 hours, were engaged in a lengthy set of negotiations with Pujols’ agent, Dan Lozano.

The Angels also are poised to sign free-agent left-hander C.J. Wilson to a five-year contract – and their goal is to land both Wilson and Pujols, according to major-league sources.

The big-spending Miami Marlins pursuit of Pujols ended earlier Wednesday, leaving the Angels as perhaps the strongest challenger to the St. Louis Cardinals’ efforts to keep Pujols. However, sources told FOXSports.com that a third unspecified team has remained involved.

The Angels, under first-year general manager Jerry Dipoto, can offer one possibility the Cardinals, Marlins, and Cubs can’t: As an American League team, the risk of a nine- or 10-year contract is mitigated by the presence of a designated hitter.

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