Happy Bobby Bonilla Day Everyone!

tony d

Registered User
Jun 23, 2007
76,590
4,550
Behind A Tree
Bonilla was a pretty good player back in the day but the fact he has a contract that will stretch into the 2030's is probably one of the worst contracts in MLB history.
 

Bob Richards

Mr. Mojo Risin'
Feb 9, 2011
10,099
14,967
Jersey
Is Rick DiPietro still getting paid by the Islanders?

That's gotta be the closest comparable to this blunder. :laugh:

There are tons of deferred money payments in a lot of sports lol. There are plenty in baseball.

The Reds have been paying Ken Griffey Jr for over a decade now and will keep doing so until 2024.

Ryan Zimmerman has a clause will pay him like $10 million over 5 years once he retires.

The Brewers are going to have to pay Ryan Braun long after his career ends and into the 2030s.

Cardinals with Matt Holiday starting next year till 2029, Chris Davis will get Orioles money until 2037 and Rafael Soriano is still making money from Washington.

Hell, the Nationals contract Bryce Harper declined was going to pay him until the 2050s.

There are more than this too.
 

BigBadBruins7708

Registered User
Dec 11, 2017
13,579
18,347
Las Vegas
There are tons of deferred money payments in a lot of sports lol. There are plenty in baseball.



There are more than this too.

true, but the difference here is the agreement that led to the deferred money.

The Mets could've just paid him the $5.9 mill he was owed in 2001 and been done with it. Instead they agree to a buy out where it gets put it into a fund at 8% interest for 10 years then pay out the balance in installments.

What should've been a $5 mill bill for the Mets has ballooned into a $25 mill bill.

That's like you going up to someone and saying "hey, buy me a coffee now and I'll give you $100 next week"
 

KevFu

Registered User
May 22, 2009
9,007
3,239
Phoenix from Rochester via New Orleans
The idea that the Bonilla thing was a "Blunder" is categorically false.


The Mets basically put $1 million into a bank account* at the end of 1999, and added half a million to it every year for the next nine years. At year 10, the account had 16 million in it. Every year, the interest accrues and they pay it out to Bonilla each. So the Mets paid $5.5 million over nine years, instead of $5.9 million in 1999, and everyone wins.

Of course, the big problem isn't this maneuver, it's that the "bank account" the Mets put the money in was "Bernie Madoff's pocket."


Why did the Mets do the deferrment? The Mets wanted to add Mike Hampton ($5 million), but Houston wouldn't trade him unless the Mets also took Derek Bell's contract ($5.75 million). The Mets only had $6 million to spend and needed to free up $4.75 million. D eferring Bonilla enabled them to make the trade.

Mike Hampton had the 5th best ERA in the NL in 2000; threw 16 shutout innings in the NLCS to win series MVP, and led the Mets to the NL Pennant and a 2000 World Series appearance.

THEN when he didn't resign, the Mets got a compensation draft pick and took David Wright. The Mets won the trade by about 60 to 12 in controllable WAR.

And, by the way, the World Series loser's ownership share of playoff revenue is probably way higher than what they'll pay to Bonilla. The 2017 players cut was $30.4 million for the World Series losers, and that number includes less than half of playoff ticket sales (the owner's cut has the majority of it, plus all the in-stadium revenues).


Every team has deferred payments to dozens of players. The Mets are mocked with the Bonilla contract simply because the sports media just loves to rip apart the Mets. There's really nothing "special" about the Bonilla deferment at all.

It isn't the MLB record for most money deferred. Not by a long shot. (hell, the Nationals offered $100 million in deferments to Bryce Harper this offseason!)

It isn't the LONGEST deferment (The Yankees traded for a pitcher from the Cubs, the Yankees ended up spending $5 million court fees because the contract deferments legally required the Yankees to pay the pitcher for a longer term than the Yankees Owner Partnership legal entity was scheduled to exist. The Yankees had to extend their partnership (no big deal), but the Yankees had to pay a legal team to fast track the process and cover their behinds from the contract and trade being voided.

It isn't the most disastrous deferment. The Atlanta Braves' Bruce Sutter gets $1.3 million every year in deferments on a contract he signed in 1985. A total of THIRTY YEARS of deferments (for a guy who retired after 1989) and he also gets $9.1 million lump sum at the end.

The list of contract deferments in MLB is insanely long. The 2001 Diamondbacks had a payroll of $85 million.... with $250 million in deferred salaries!
 

BostonBob

4 Ever The Greatest
Jan 26, 2004
13,618
6,573
Vancouver, BC
CBS Sports takes a closer look at the Bonilla deal.

bonilla-promo.jpg


For more than a few MLB players and ex-players, July 1 is a big day on the baseball calendar. It's the day many signing bonuses and deferred salary payments (or portions thereof) are made. Must be fun checking that direct deposit each year, huh?

Former All-Star Bobby Bonilla, who lasted played in 2001, has become the face of the July 1 payday. As part of a deferred salary arrangement, the New York Mets have paid Bonilla a touch more than $1.19 million ($1,193,248.20 to be exact) each July 1 since 2011, and will continue doing so until 2035. 2035! Bonilla, now 57, will be 72 when the last payment is made.

The Mets signed Bonilla to a five-year contract worth $29 million in 1991 that was the richest contract in team sports at the time. He spent the first three and a half seasons of that contract with New York before being traded away. Bonilla won a World Series with the Marlins in 1997 and was later traded back to the Mets as part of their post-championship fire sale.

The Mets released Bonilla in January 2000 but were still on the hook for his $5.9 million salary that season. Believing they were poised to make a significant profit through their investments with Bernie Madoff, Mets ownership instead agreed to defer Bonilla's salary with 8 percent interest and spread it across 25 years from 2011-35.

Full story here: July 1 is Bobby Bonilla Day: Why the Mets still owe him $1.19 million a year until he's 72
 

KevFu

Registered User
May 22, 2009
9,007
3,239
Phoenix from Rochester via New Orleans
Only 15 more years Mets...

It's so funny that people think this is some kind of "burden" for the Mets. And it's SO DUMB that this turned into "a thing." The media, most notably ESPN, simply love to crap on the Mets. Mostly because throughout the Mets history, every journalist who wants to be the Yankees beat writer gets promoted closer to his dream by taking a gig as a Mets beat writer. So the Mets were rebuilding one year, and one of these morons writes that Bonilla was the Mets highest paid outfielder, even though he hadn't been with the team in a decade.

Which was TOTALLY WRONG because even if deferments count as payroll (they don't! That's why teams do them!), the Mets had EVEN BIGGER deferments to other players/outfielders: Carlos Beltran got a $3 million deferment that year.

This is standard operating procedure for the last 50 years of baseball. The team can get a better interest rate than the player can, so they use the team as their savings account instead of a bank.

Bonilla's is not the longest deferment (Rich Rueschel's was), it's not the most expensive by total dollars (Ken Griffey Jr got $56 million in deferred money), it's not the most expensive by annual payments (Manny Ramirez gets $1.94 million each year until 2026), it's not the most crazy (Bruce Sutter). It's not even any of those things FOR THE METS, let alone BASEBALL. Bonilla isn't the worst player to get a deferment.

The Baltimore Orioles will give Chris Davis 15 deferred payments, $3.5 million annually in 2023 through 2032 and $1.4 million annually in 2033 through 2037. Davis hit .168 and .179 the last two years.
 

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