Today is July 1st, or as Mets fans call it, Bobby Bonilla gets paid 1.2 million day

[edjr 5,538]

and every July 1st until 2035

 

 

 

 

[dain11279 926]

I was gonna post this in the other thread you started. Focking Mets. Hell, they should call Bonilla up. Wouldn't hurt their offense nowadays. Shut out again last night

[edjr 5,538]

I was gonna post this in the other thread you started. Focking Mets. Hell, they should call Bonilla up. Wouldn't hurt their offense nowadays. Shut out again last night

 

Yeah, but they have Michael Cuddyer for the next year and a half.

[posty 2,295]

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/07/01/time-to-beat-the-bobby-bonilla-is-still-being-paid-by-the-mets-thing-into-the-ground/

 

Today is July 1. That’s Canada Day, so happy Canada Day! I hope, like me, you’ll be blasting Rush and eating Timbits all day long!

 

It’s also the day that the Mets have to pay Bobby Bonilla $1.2 million, as they have since 2011 and will have to until 2036. People will laugh at that last one like crazy. It’s become an annual “LOL Mets!” joke. But it’s about the hackiest and easiest “LOL Mets!” joke around. And as many have noted, it’s not even in the top 10 of things to laugh at the Mets over. The quick version:

• Essentially this is deferred compensation. While it wasn’t super common for teams to do it back when Bonilla agreed to that deal, it is far more common now. Let’s see what Max Scherzer‘s payouts look like when he’s still accepting huge checks from the Nats seven years after he retired.
• One thing that makes Bonilla’s deal stick out is the interest he’s getting: 8%. That’s high, as The Bad Economist pointed out a few years back, the prime rate when he signed the deal was 8.5%. The Mets probably should’ve made his interest a floating figure rather than fixing it at 8% — Bonilla is getting a windfall as a result — but that’s down to the Mets’ oweners’ well-documented bad financial instincts and their misguided belief that they’d make 15% on any investments in perpetuity, not the silliness of the structure.
• The Mets got use of the $5.9 million Bonilla deferred for years. And hey, for a lot of that time they probably DID get 15% on it because they were early investors in a ponzi scheme! But even if they put that in a non-criminal investment, they made money on it. They got something for that money. Even conservatively invested, a good half of the $30 million or so Bonilla is getting after interest will have been paid for.
• And they got more than just the investment. As Dan Lewis pointed out five years ago, the $5.9 that was freed up for 2000 was used to bite off a huge chunk of the salaries owed to Mike Hampton and Derek Bell, for whom they traded and who helped them reach the World Series. When Hampton walked to take advantage of the good schools in the Denver area, they used the compensation pick to draft a kid named David Wright. None of that happens without deferring Bonilla’s salary given their payroll crunch at the time.

So mock the Mets all you want. Mock them for trading for Bonilla in the first place (though they only gave up Mel Rojas for him, and he was clinically dead by then). Mock them for their choice of interest rate. But don’t mock them for deferring Bonilla’s salary, because it was a good move for them at the time that allowed them to make moves they wouldn’t have otherwise made, including a move that helped them win a pennant.

 

Besides, there are things far more recent to mock them for anyway. And why not dwell on those?

[KSB2424 3,082]

Deferred compensation. It's like taking the annuity over the lump sum if you win the lottery. Meh.

[RLLD 3,452]

Sad thing....Bonilla is likely convinced he is truly owed this.....

[IGotWorms 3,297]

Sad thing....Bonilla is likely convinced he is truly owed this.....

He signed a contract that entitled him to it

 

Nobody held a gun to the Mets' head. Presumably they had sophisticated people on their side of the deal

[posty 2,295]

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/07/01/bobby-bonillas-isnt-the-only-deferred-money-deal-in-the-game-and-isnt-even-the-worst/

 

As we noted before, Bobby Bonilla’s deferred deal with the Mets isn’t anywhere near as bad and mockworthy as it’s often made out to be. But the fact is, it isn’t even the worst in the game, either as far as the money or the optics go.

 

Check out some of these gems, most of which was gathered from an article by ESPN’s Doug Mittler back in 2012:

• Manny Ramirez has a 16-year, $32 million deferred money deal from the Red Sox which, like Bonilla’s, kicked in on July 1, 2011. It costs them $1.968 million a year and goes through 2026 when Ramirez is 54;
• The Cardinals are paying Matt Holliday to play now, but they’ll still be paying him through 2029 under the $120 million, seven-year contract he signed in 2010;
• Retired Rockies first baseman Todd Helton deferred $13 million of his 2011 salary (total was $19.1 million) and will be paid through 2024;
• The Nationals will pay Ryan Zimmerman $10 million over five years after he’s retired, with a nominal organization job;
• Ryan Braun will receive $18 million in payments in equal installments each July 1 from 2022 to 2031;
• The Tigers are still paying Gary Sheffield between $1 million and $2.5 million annually through 2019;
• The Mariners are paying Ichiro Suzuki a chunk of his last big deal through the year 2032;
• The Reds signed Ken Griffey Jr. to a $116.5 million contract in February 2000, but more than half of that is still being paid by the team and will continue to be so until Griffey is in his 50s.

My favorite one, however, has to be from my Atlanta Braves, who tried to make a big splash by signing Bruce Sutter before the 1985 season. He was a bust of course, but this is how he was paid. From a 1985 Los Angeles Times report:

 

Bruce Sutter was to receive payments totaling $44 million over the next 36 years from his new club, the Atlanta Braves . . . Sutter will receive a $750,000 salary for each of the next six years and a minimum of $1.12 million a year for the remaining 30 years of the contract. In addition, he will get the $9.1 million in so-called “principal” at the end.

 

Bruce. Sutter. And you think Bobby Bonilla’s deal was a bad one.

[edjr 5,538]

bump

[shotsup 830]

Happy July 1

[dain11279 926]

[shotsup 830]

[Frozenbeernuts 1,652]

This is the song that never ends, yes it goes on and on my friends...

[Reality 2,710]

I don't get the hate for this, what the difference in giving some scrub a ton of money up front or 1 mill a year for the next 25? Good on him, smart move.

[Djgb13 2,338]

This is the song that never ends, yes it goes on and on my friends...

Ok there lamb chop

[titans&bucs&bearsohmy! 2,745]

I don't get the hate for this, what the difference in giving some scrub a ton of money up front or 1 mill a year for the next 25? Good on him, smart move.

Not really on his part. If he'd have gotten it all up front, it would be earning money for him rather than the mets owner.

 

Hell, he could have turned around and bought an annuity with it if he was concerned about annual income. Still come out ahead.

[frank 2,143]

Not really on his part. If he'd have gotten it all up front, it would be earning money for him rather than the mets owner.

 

Hell, he could have turned around and bought an annuity with it if he was concerned about annual income. Still come out ahead.

The amount he's getting is based on 8% interest.

[titans&bucs&bearsohmy! 2,745]

The amount he's getting is based on 8% interest.

Ah. Fair enough then.

[edjr 5,538]

2035 is almost here Mets fans

[dain11279 926]

Ed wont be here today so someone has to do it

[shotsup 830]

[shotsup 830]

Braves still paying Bruce Sutter for 2 more years.

 

Also Mets buying out BB led them to sign Mike Hampton.

Then Hampton signed with Rockies and Mets got a draft pick that ended up being David Wright.

 

Worth the annual 1.19 mill

[tanatastic 2,061]

Bonilla is sickening. Dudes getting like 1.2 mil for another decade or something. Its incredible.

[LOD01 185]

Newer paid much attention to this since I gave up rooting for the Reds when teams started buying World Series trophies. Had to look up what happened.

 

Bonilla and his agent offered the Mets a deal: Bonilla would defer payment for a decade, and the Mets would pay him an annual paycheck of $1.19 million starting in 2011 and ending in 2035, adding up to a total payout of $29.8 million. Mets owner Fred Wilpon accepted the deal mostly because he was heavily invested with Ponzi scheme operator Bernie Madoff, and the 10 percent returns he thought he was getting on his investments with Madoff outweighed the eight percent interest the Mets would be paying on Bonilla's initial $5.9 million. As a result, the payout was a subject of inquiry during the Madoff investment scandal.

[supermike80 1,280]

I think max scherzer cut a deal where he gets $7 million until like 2031

[shotsup 830]

I think max scherzer cut a deal where he gets $7 million until like 2031

There are many such deals out there. Even players currently playing now.

 

Manny Ramirez gets a payment on July 1 too. Ed has a hard on for the Mets.

[dain11279 926]

Dont they still owe Mo Vaughn money too or somefin?

[shotsup 830]

Dont they still owe Mo Vaughn money too or somefin?

I don't think so but that too was a major bust of a contract they took on.

[edjr 5,538]

Ed wont be here today so someone has to do it

 

Thank you, Sir.

[dain11279 926]

 

I miss Shots sharing my Mets misery with me

[titans&bucs&bearsohmy! 2,745]

I love this thread. It's right up there with MDC'S 76ers process is finally paying off thread as far as annual sports threads go. 

[edjr 5,538]

[dain11279 926]

 

[edjr 5,538]

2 hours ago, dain11279 said:

 

[posty 2,295]

Boston Red Sox are paying Manny Ramirez — who last played for the team in 2008 – about $30 million total from 2011 to 2026.

[dain11279 926]

A tradition unlike any other

[edjr 5,538]

 

He hasn't picked up a professional baseball glove in 19 years but he's still picking up a paycheck -- and a hefty one at that.

It's July 1, which for New York Mets fans means it's Bobby Bonilla Day.

The former slugger retired in 2001 with the St. Louis Cardinals, but he has been collecting a check of nearly $1.2 million from the Mets every year on July 1 for almost a decade.

The deal is part of a contract negotiated by Bonilla's agent Dennis Gilbert, which will pay Bonilla $1,193,248.20 every year until 2035. Bonilla, a former All-Star who last played with the Mets in 1999, will be 72 when his contract with the team expires.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/01/us/bobby-bonilla-day-mets-mlb-spt-trnd/index.html

[edjr 5,538]

On 7/1/2019 at 3:53 PM, posty said:

Boston Red Sox are paying Manny Ramirez — who last played for the team in 2008 – about $30 million total from 2011 to 2026.

Manny is arguably the greatest right handed hitter ever, certainly when he played for the Red Sox. Great contract by the Duke

[TommyGavin 788]

47 minutes ago, dain11279 said:

A tradition unlike any other

Ed July 1st

Skids daylight savings time. 

[Reality 2,710]

On 7/3/2017 at 4:18 PM, Reality said:

I don't get the hate for this, what the difference in giving some scrub a ton of money up front or 1 mill a year for the next 25? Good on him, smart move.

Still this.