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MLB: Happy Bobby Bonilla Day!

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Bobby Bonilla Day: Why the Mets still owe former MLB All-Star more than $1M per year on July 1

Happy Bobby Bonilla Day to all who celebrate
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Bonilla's deferred salary with the Mets is the most famous July 1 payment in baseball, hands down, but it is not the only July 1 payment in the game. In fact, Bonilla has a second deferred salary agreement with the Baltimore Orioles, who still owe him $500,000 a year from 2004-28. July 1 is a good day in the Bonilla household
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4cy16 said:
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After being traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers partway through the 1998 season, he was traded back to the New York Mets before the 1999 season. When the Mets wanted to release him at the end of the year, he negotiated a settlement whereby the Mets would pay him $1.19 million on July 1 every year from 2011 through 2035, a date that has become known in Mets fandom as "Bobby Bonilla Day". He is also paid $500,000 by the Orioles every year from 2004 to 2028 due to them also having a deferred contract with him.[6] After two more lackluster seasons, one each with the Atlanta
 
BigJCy said:


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Bet if you dig through NBA contracts that were bought out there are some doozies out there too. The amount of money some guys have been paid over the years NOT to play for a team across pro sports is just crazy. At least in the NFL not all the money in contracts is guaranteed I guess. Just wait 10 years from now when the Dodgers are paying Ohtani $68 mil a year over 10 years in deferred money after he is no longer playing for them. They probably win a few World Series while he is playing to justify it I'm sure but I'll be curious if that contract comes back to bite them at some point as that is a lot of money wrapped up in someone not on your roster anymore plus they probably will have a few other bad contracts they will eventually be paying out over time too with as much as they are spending right now.
 
I didn’t read the whole thread so maybe this was already mentioned but Bonilla got an 8% return on this deal. If he had instead just taken the lump sum on day 1 and put it in the s&p 500, he would have a lot more money today. Obviously 8% risk-free is a good deal, but that’s also what corporate bonds were yielding at that time.

The real benefit for Bonilla is he eliminated the risk that he would end up like so many other athletes that wasted their millions. But if he would have gotten with a good financial advisor at that time instead, he’d be wealthier today.
 
MountainManHawk said:
I didn’t read the whole thread so maybe this was already mentioned but Bonilla got an 8% return on this deal. If he had instead just taken the lump sum on day 1 and put it in the s&p 500, he would have a lot more money today. Obviously 8% risk-free is a good deal, but that’s also what corporate bonds were yielding at that time.

The real benefit for Bonilla is he eliminated the risk that he would end up like so many other athletes that wasted their millions. But if he would have gotten with a good financial advisor at that time instead, he’d be wealthier today.
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No he is making a pretty nice penny on this arrangement. It's the Mets that made a bad deal:

What is Bobby Bonilla Day? Why Mets pay $1.19M every July 1 - ESPN

Instead of buying out his remaining $5.9 mil at the time the Mets agreed to pay him nearly $1.2 mil in annual payments for 25 years including 8% interest. They were planning to use the deferred savings in a Bernie Madoff account that they thought they would make a significant profit on but that did not happen. So instead of just buying him out for $5.9 mil outright they will wind up paying him over $30 mil over the 25 years of deferral. If you are BB that is a pretty good deal IMO. It pretty much is paying him like a pension plan at this point.

Just wait until the Dodgers are paying Ohtani $68 mil a year for 10 years after he is done playing baseball. I am really curious to see how all the deferred money they eventually have to pay out with the players they have on contract right now will pan out for them. I'm guessing this number may be even higher now since this article is from Feb 2025 but the Dodgers have $1.051 Bil in deferred payments to 8 players due between 2028-46

Dodgers' deferred payments hit $1.051B to 8 players in 2028-46 - ESPN
 
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CYdTracked said:
No he is making a pretty nice penny on this arrangement. It's the Mets that made a bad deal:

What is Bobby Bonilla Day? Why Mets pay $1.19M every July 1 - ESPN

Instead of buying out his remaining $5.9 mil at the time the Mets agreed to pay him nearly $1.2 mil in annual payments for 25 years including 8% interest. They were planning to use the deferred savings in a Bernie Madoff account that they thought they would make a significant profit on but that did not happen. So instead of just buying him out for $5.9 mil outright they will wind up paying him over $30 mil over the 25 years of deferral. If you are BB that is a pretty good deal IMO. It pretty much is paying him like a pension plan at this point.

Just wait until the Dodgers are paying Ohtani $68 mil a year for 10 years after he is done playing baseball. I am really curious to see how all the deferred money they eventually have to pay out with the players they have on contract right now will pan out for them. I'm guessing this number may be even higher now since this article is from Feb 2025 but the Dodgers have $1.051 Bil in deferred payments to 8 players due between 2028-46

Dodgers' deferred payments hit $1.051B to 8 players in 2028-46 - ESPN
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It sounds like you are disagreeing but then you list the same math as I did. I specifically said risk-free 8% is a good deal but corporate bonds at that time were yielding similar and he would have a lot more cash today if he had just bought stocks instead. I’m familiar with the Bernie Maddoff angle, that’s an interesting bit of trivia.
 
ISUTex said:
Someday we will be doing Ohtani day with the Dodgers.
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Wasn't about "Bonilla Day", but saw a tweet about the Marlins this morning. Giancarlo Stanton is the 3rd highest paid player on their payroll. He last played for them in 2017.
 
CyGuy5 said:
I’m not trying to be that guy but if you understand the time value of money the Mets didn’t get “fleeced”
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Sort of the point I tried to make above. They gave him an 8% return, which is good but far from getting fleeced. In January 2000 when the deal was signed, he could have just bought a treasury bond yielding over 6% or high yield bonds yielding over 11%.

As I said above, the fact he took no investment risk made the 8% attractive, but other players at the time that were smart with their money ended up a lot wealthier today.
 
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