Celebrating Bobby Bonilla Day

Since 2011, baseball fans have jeered at the New York Mets’ payment to Bobby Bonilla. Every July 1 from 2011 to 2035, Bonilla will collect a $1.19 million check as part of a buyout from his contract in 2000. Because he was a lousy free-agent signing, Bonilla and his agent used their leverage over the Mets to grant him, essentially, a post-retirement pension. While the buyout was an obvious win for Bonilla, how did the deal turn out on the Mets’ side?

Bonilla was entering his 14th season in MLB when he joined the Mets. He was a shell of his former self, having just endured an injury-riddled 1998 season with the Florida Marlins. The Mets expected him to bring a veteran presence that would help bolster an excellent 1999 team into playoff relevance. Bonilla himself expected that he was going to be a starting outfielder in 1999. The Mets would make it to the NLCS but would lose to the Atlanta Braves in six games. Bonilla was not a significant help. 

He only appeared in 60 games, 23 of them in the outfield. His most prominent role was pinch-hitting, and he struggled with a .160 batting average, the lowest of his career. His most notable moment was playing cards in the dugout with Rickey Henderson during that Game 6 loss to the Braves in the NLCS. The media gave Bonilla the most blame, and he told the New York Post in 2017 that when Henderson was pulled from the game, he coaxed Bonilla to get the cards to calm down an “explosive situation.” 

During that offseason, Bonilla was disgruntled with the Mets because of his removal from the lineup. So Bonilla and his agent, Dennis Gilbert, went to the Mets and offered a deferral to his contract. The $5.9 million on his contract would be instantly gone, but he would be paid $1,193,248.20 every July 1 from 2011 to 2035.

So, is this a bad deal for the Mets?

Essentially, no. The Mets used the extra money to trade with the Houston Astros and acquire LHP Mike Hampton, a runner-up for the Cy Young Award in ‘99. Hampton was a pivotal playoff performer in 2000 for the Mets. He had two starts against the St. Louis Cardinals in the NLCS and pitched 16 scoreless innings en route to the Mets’ first World Series appearance since their 1986 title. Hampton became a free agent that offseason and signed with the Colorado Rockies, with the Mets receiving a compensation pick in the 2001 Amateur Draft. They selected future captain 3B David Wright with the pick. 

On the business side, former Mets owner Fred Wilpon accepted the deal, in part, due to the evaluation that he could make more money by investing with his financial advisor Bernie Madoff. He promised Wilpon his money would receive a higher return on his investment, making the buyout more profitable on the Mets’ end of the deal. Unfortunately, this did not work out because Madoff was running a Ponzi scheme, costing Wilpon tens of millions of dollars and, in turn, financially hurting the Mets. If there’s any silver lining to be had from that whole thing, it’s this: Wilpon won’t have to pay the remaining 15 years to Bonilla after selling the team in October 2020 to Steve Cohen.

So, why do we make fun of the deal? 

Deferral payments happen a lot more often than you might think. OF Ken Griffey Jr., RHP Bret Saberhagen and OF Manny Ramirez are all players whose contracts were prolonged to save money. In Bonilla’s case, he was well past his prime and was never close to the talent the players mentioned above had. Bonilla also played two more seasons in MLB with the Braves and Cardinals. He played several more games with both teams in subsequent years than with the Mets in ’99. 

Wilpon was so sure that Madoff would be able to generate revenue, he gave Bonilla an 8% interest rate, which is harder to get now than in 2000. That further hurt how much more profitable the Mets could have been if Wilpon gave him a lower, 5% interest rate. But, of course, Bonilla wasn’t strapped for cash either. He was the highest-paid player in baseball from 1992-1994, earning $18.6 million over three years, ironically playing for the Mets. 

Bonilla’s deal was publicized when Madoff came under investigation in 2009. It became easy to laugh at Wilpon, who gained a reputation in the mid-2000s for being incredibly cheap with the Mets’ payroll. The optics of a team owner investing millions of dollars into a con artist while running his baseball team under strict financial control created mistrust and anger among fans and ownership. 

Bonilla was 48 in 2011 when he started getting paid by the Mets. In 2035, when his last check arrives, he will be 72 years old. The year 2035 seems like it’s so far away; it’s almost whimsical to think of what the world will be like 15 years from now. Newsday pointed out that in 2019, Bonilla earned more money in one day than 14 players on the Mets 25-man roster did in an entire season. That list of players included 1B Pete Alonso, IF/OF Jeff McNeil, SS Amed Rosario, RHP Edwin Diaz and OF Brandon Nimmo.

Cohen jokingly tweeted in 2020, shortly after taking over the team, that he would like to make a day to commemorate Bonilla. He said he would hand him an oversized check and drive a lap around Citi Field before a game. 

Bonilla’s deal with the Mets somewhat spurns his legacy. His playing career gets buried behind the shame of Mets fans who cope with the executives’ constant futility and failure by poking fun at themselves. Bonilla was a six-time all-star and helped the Marlins win a World Series in 1997. He intended to do the same thing with his second stint in New York, but in his failure to do so, the Mets acquired Hampton and Wright, two players who could have gotten the Mets to the World Series. Bonilla rarely talks about the deal, and sadly, doesn’t seem to share the same humor that fans have about it. Whenever asked about it, he praises his agent and doesn’t get too specific about the contract terms.

Cover photo courtesy of Osamu Honda/AP Photo