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Bobby Bonilla Celebrates July 1 Thanks To Absurd, Decades-Old Contract

By Oliver VanDervoort
Published on: 06:01 PST, Jul 1, 2016

Bobby Bonilla was one of the best players of his generation. It also appears Bobby Bonilla’s agent was one of the best agents of his day. Thanks to a contract the former outfielder cut with the New York Mets, the one-time slugger is still collecting a hefty paycheck from his former team.

Every July 1, Bonilla gets a check for $1.1 million, and he will continue to receive that check until 2035. That means the 53-year-old former player is going to be making money for a team he hasn’t played for in 17 years until he’s 72 years old.

The story of Bonilla and the Mets is one that has served as a cautionary tale for the rest of baseball since 2000. The team was attempting to spend more money on other pieces to improve the team and they wanted to buy out the outfielder’s contract which was valued at $5.9 million at the time. Bonilla agreed to make a deal that allowed the team to avoid paying that money right away, which seemed rather odd at the time.

Instead of paying $5.9 million at the time, the team agreed to give him nearly $1.2 million a year from 2011 to 2035, according to GQ. This is one of those moves that was sheer genius on the part of a player who already had millions in the bank and didn’t need that extra $6 million right away. Instead, he managed to make sure he’s going to be financially set for the rest of his life. Now, every July 1, there are stories written about the way Bonilla was able to get the Mets to pay what is going to equal nearly $30 million over the next 20 years so they wouldn’t have to pay him $6 million in 2000.

The Mets will claim that while Bobby Bonilla comes out smelling like a rose, the team did plenty well with the agreement as well. They have an argument, since getting his contract off the books meant they were able to add the pieces that got them to the 2000 World Series. Deferred deals certainly aren’t unheard of in the sports world, but generally, a team gets to defer the money towards the end of a contract. That means the player will see an extra lump sum of money when the final year comes up.

There are never contracts that allow a player get this kind of money 30 years after his final year playing in major league baseball. ABC News reports the team managed to do this deal because they worked with an insurance company to pay out the money. It should be pointed out that while Bonilla is going to be getting a paycheck every year, he didn’t come out of the deal smelling entirely like a rose. There is the argument to be made that Bonilla robbed himself of some money by taking this deal.

He certainly had the ability to tell the Mets no to the buyout offer and hold their feet to the fire when it came to paying his entire contract. Had he got the money and invested it in the market, without even being all that aggressive, he would have made more than what he’s going to be getting paid out over the course of this deal. In other words, neither one of the parties involved in the deal came out as total winners. What we do have is a funny story about a deal that was struck between the New York Mets and the man who was one of the best outfielders in the game during his day. These days, Bobby Bonilla is long out of baseball, but he’s still getting plenty of money.

[Photo by Jonathan Daniel/AP Images]

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