The most interesting holiday of America’s favorite pastime comes just three days before the country celebrates its independence.
On July 1 of every year from 2011 to 2035, the New York Mets have and will write a $1.19 million check to former player Bobby Bonilla — even though he hasn’t suited up for the team in the 21st century.
“We got a guaranteed 8% interest rate,” Dennis Gilbert, the sports agent who negotiated the contract for Bonilla, told Yahoo Finance (video above).
“Made it work and gave him income all the way through age 65.”
The Bronx native will be
paid in roughly $29.75 million over the course of the contract — and it all sprang from
a $5.9 million salary owed to Bonilla for the 2000 season.
“No one really knew about it until it came news,” Bonilla told Yahoo Finance. “It was pretty funny that all of a sudden now it became this thing.
Every time I look at Dennis, I say: ‘Thank you.’”
Roberto Martin Antonio Bonilla last stepped on the field wearing the Mets’ dark blue and orange colors in the last game of the 1999 regular season when he grounded out to Pittsburgh Pirates’ first baseman Kevin Young as a pinch hitter in the bottom of the ninth inning.
60 games and hit .160." Following their expulsion from the postseason, the kings from Queens immediately went into restructuring the roster, starting with Bobby Bonilla. After all, in the 1999 season, the outfielder played
60 games and hit .160.
“Yeah, '99, which is probably the toughest year play. The one year I went back with the Mets, probably the most difficult year,” Bonilla said.
In his 16 years in the league with eight teams, Bobby Bo collected three-time Silver Slugger awards, six MLB All-Star selections, and a World Series ring with the 1997 Florida Marlins.
The Mets traded for Bonilla before the 1999 season from the Los Angeles Dodgers for relief pitcher Mel Rojas. The trade meant taking on the final two years of a $23.3 million contract that would have the boys from Flushing paying $5.9 million a year.
Bonilla made waves in 1999 — but mostly for his struggles on and off the field. He struggled to get on base and he fought with the press and Mets management, including namesake and manager at the time Bobby Valentine.
The Mets had enough, and so they met up with Bonilla’s agent and agreed on a deal that would go down in the Hall of Fame of retirement plans.
“The general manager of the Mets needed to free up some money to sign some free agents or to sign a free agent. He needed to have the money now to pay the free agent,” said Gilbert, CEO of the Gilbert Group and a special assistant to the Chicago White Sox.
Gilbert, who played alongside Dock Ellis in high school and dreamed of becoming the owner of the Dodgers, was known around the baseball world as someone who would give both sides of the aisle a fair deal. And the deal became to defer the $5.9 million the Mets owed Bonilla in 2000 in lieu of paying Bonilla in installments from 2011 to 2035.
And
by releasing Bobby Bo and signing the deal, the Mets freed up $6 million to sign free agent Mike Hampton, who went on to become the 2000 NLCS MVP. And when Hampton left after the Metropolitans lost to the New York Yankees in the World Series, the team was awarded the draft pick that would become team legend and former captain David Wright.
This sort of deal occasionally occurs in professional baseball.
“Remember, it's not what you make or what you have. It's what you keep,” said Gilbert. “Deferred compensation helps you keep your money.”
That said, Bonilla’s circumstances are special enough that journalists began referring to July 1 as “Bobby Bonilla Day.”
Another wrinkle is that
the Mets are actually paying two separate deferment contracts to Bonilla. The New York native signed a five-year, $29 million contract — MLB history’s largest at the time — starting in 1992 before being traded to the Baltimore Orioles in 1995.
Gilbert claims that the contract would push the deferment payout to around $50 million, though the details of the deferment deals are not clear. In any case, not bad for a slugger who made
career earnings of $46.45 million for his playing time.
“I will tell you,” Gilbert said as we spoke to Bonilla over the phone, “you’re the first person he’s talked to [about this] in a lot of years.”
it's a win for Bobby B tho...
