Bobby Bonilla Gets Paid More by the Mets Today Than You’re Likely to Ever Make

Bobby Bonilla, an outfielder you may have never heard of if you weren’t following baseball 20 years ago, will get paid nearly $1.2 million by the New York Mets today, despite last playing for the team in 1999. Bonilla retired from MLB in 2001 after a productive career that saw him make six All-Star teams and win the 1997 World Series with the Florida Marlins.

So why are the Mets still paying someone who last played for them two decades ago? The easy answer is Bernie Madoff, the longer answer is stupidity and general mismanagement by the Wilpons for the last 20 years or so.

When Bonilla was released by the Mets following the 1999 season, the teams still owed the then-36-year-old outfielder $5.9 million, which it was agreed would be deferred through 2035 at an eight percent interest rate. The Mets thought this would be a smart move because they were banking on 10% returns from an investment with Madoff to cover the cost of the interest payments.

If you aren’t familiar with the name, Bernie Madoff is one of the all-time biggest swindlers in the history of Wall Street. The investment bank that he ran was nothing more than a massive Ponzi scheme, perpetrating fraud by paying out early investors with new investor money to create the illusion of success. This fraud would total nearly $65 billion dollars, sweeping away pension funds and 401ks for people who desperately needed them, in addition to the money of millionaires like the Wilpons.

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Fast forward to 2020 and the Mets owners are financially hurting and actively looking to sell the team. And yet, Bobby Bonilla will still collect his $1,193,248.20 check, just like he will every July 1 through 2035, when he’ll be 72. The total for the original $5.9 million will have ballooned to nearly $30 million by the time all of the payments have been made, making Bonilla possibly the most successful financial story to come out of the Madoff scandal.

Bobby Bonilla bank account on July 1 pic.twitter.com/InJLO1mScq

— Josiah Johnson (@KingJosiah54) July 1, 2020

Over five total seasons in two stints with the Mets, Bonilla hit .270/.356/.459 with 95 home runs and 295 RBIs, but never got them over the championship hump, falling to the Braves in the 1999 National League Championship Series.

To put Bonilla’s windfall in perspective, Bonilla would be the 20th-highest-paid player on the current Mets 40-man roster, before accounting for any COVID-shortened season salary changes. He will make basically double what second-year superstar Pete Alonso will earn in 2020. As a pre-arbitration player Alonso earned $550,000 last year and was slated for $652,521 going into 2020 after the Mets gave him a contract bump for his productive rookie season. In a 60-game season that number will be around 25% of what the Mets will pay Bobby Bonilla. Bonilla will also earn more than regular young Mets contributors Jeff McNeil, J.D. Davis and Dominic Smith this season.

But take heart, Mets fans. With the 2020 payment there are only *checks notes* 15 more years of these!? Happy Bobby Bonilla day!

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