Happy Bobby Bonilla Day!

[Hornsby]

The Mets get the privilege of paying longtime retired Met Bobby Bonilla 1.193 million every July 1st...this only has to be done until 2035. Well done Mets, well done!

[rhd]

Starting in 2022, today will be Max Scherzer day, where the Nats will be paying $15Mil/yr thru 2028 w/o him playing for them.

[pitbull]

Tigers have to pay Miggy $154 mil until 2023. 30 mil per season until 2022 when he get a raise to $32. Very frustrating for being a Tiger fan.

You see, when the Mets wanted to get rid of Bonilla and his $5.9 million salary in 2000, his agent struck a deal that was a bit different: They didn’t have to pay him right away. Instead they could pay him $1.19 million for 25 years starting in 2011.

[mgwiz22]

And the Mets were going to collect double digit returns on the money from Bernie Maddoff.

[Judge Jude]

yes, the Bonilla deal was actually well-chosen if Madoff money continued.

all kidding aside, I don't think the Mets get killed on this anyway.

and every single pro athlete should have this annuity, basically (not the exact term, Revo will tell me. or not)

no matter how stupid you want to get, force your hands away from the money, year after year.

[Sharky]

Not funny. The Mets are so bad. We don’t need everyone pouring on.

[madducks]

I read that Bonilla's ex-wife, whom he was married to for 23 years, gets half of this payment each year. So, after taxes Bobby probably only sees about 300k of this payment.

[dslaw]

I never knew about Sutter's contract until this year but he signed a 6 year deal prior to the 1985 season with Atlanta. Sutter gets:
1985-1991: $750,000 each year (6 years)
1992-2021: $1.12 million every year (30 years)
2021: $9.1 million, which represents the ‘principal’ dollars that were supposedly placed in a 12.3% interest-bearing annuity back in 1985.

1985 he was bad. 1986 he was bad for 16 games and then got hurt. 1987 didn't pitch. 1988 he was bad and then retired. Even though he played 4 of the 6 years he still gets his full contract. Sutter gets $45M over 36 years.

[mjl]

I didn't realize until yesterday that the Mets are also paying Bret Saberhagen (who I didn't even remember played for them) on a similar deal to Bonilla. Apparently the Saberhagen deal was the model they used for the Bonilla contract.

[revo]

There's a few others receiving deferred payments. Cincinnati is paying $3.5m to Ken Griffey Jr. until 2024. The Rockies are paying Todd Helton about $1.5m until 2024. The Cards will pay Matt Holliday $1.4m until 2029. The Tigers are paying Gary Sheffield until next year. The Red Sox are paying Manny Ramirez until 2026. The Mets are also still paying Darryl Strawberry, Carlos Beltran and Johan Santana. The M's are also paying Ichiro until 2032.

[Gregg]

yes, the Bonilla deal was actually well-chosen if Madoff money continued.

all kidding aside, I don't think the Mets get killed on this anyway.

and every single pro athlete should have this annuity, basically (not the exact term, Revo will tell me. or not)

no matter how stupid you want to get, force your hands away from the money, year after year.

It was a great deal for both sides at the time. 1.9M is not hurting the Mets in any way. They are merely paying what they agreed to and what they owe.

[revo]

It was a great deal for both sides at the time. 1.9M is not hurting the Mets in any way. They are merely paying what they agreed to and what they owe.

Between Bonilla, Santana, Beltran, Saberhagen & Strawberry, the Mets are paying these relics $10m a season. That figure would be equal to their 5th highest paid player.


What's amazing is that, like many others, they believed Bernie Madoff's returns to be almost guaranteed which is as silly as it is asinine. Using this fugazy "guarantee," they foolishly deferred these contracts expecting this return on their invested money to continue and cover the deferred payments. So when they guaranteed 8% a year compounded returns to Bonilla, that was crazy talk. There's nowhere you can get that kind of return guaranteed.

What they should have done is bought an actual fixed annuity at the time -- which WAS paying 8% in 1990 -- and just let that pay for the deferred obligation. But instead, they got caught with their pants down.

[cavebird]

Not funny. The Mets are so bad. We don’t need everyone pouring on.

Yes, yes, you do.

Sincerely,

Shea Jones

[rhd]

Not funny. The Mets are so bad. We don’t need everyone pouring on.

Dont worry, Shark. My O's are even worse (way worse! )

[Judge Jude]

and yet the O's swept the Mets in a 2-game series just last month