Bobby Bonilla Day: Why The New York Mets Are Still Paying Him

NEW YORK — It’s Bobby Bonilla Day. Again.

As the calendar hits July 1, the former Major League Baseball slugger will once again be $1.19 million richer. The New York Mets pay Bonilla that amount every year to do nothing.

Bonilla was traded to the Mets from the Los Angeles Dodgers before the 1999 baseball season. He played for the Mets that year, but the team wanted to buy out his contract before the next season began, still owing the former All-Star and 1997 World Series champion $5.9 million.

The agent representing Bonilla told the Mets they could release him and wouldn’t have to pay him right away. Instead, the payments could be deferred, with interest, to a once-a-year sum from 2011 to 2035.

The Mets and their then-owner, Fred Wilpon agreed, as they were promised a 10 percent return on investments by Bernie Madoff, according to several reports. That would have been more than what they needed to cover the Bonilla deferred payment plan, which includes an 8 percent interest rate.

The result: a $1.19 million payday every year on July 1, and the birth of Bobby Bonilla Day.

Madoff was arrested in 2008 on charges he orchestrated one of the largest Ponzi schemes in American history. He was sentenced to prison and died earlier this year, still 14 years before the Mets are done paying Bonilla.

Bonilla, although the most famous example, is not the only long-retired professional athlete getting paid for sitting at home.

Bret Saberhagen still gets paid $250,000 a year by the same Flushing, Queens, baseball squad, according to ESPN. It was that deal that inspired Bonilla's.

Fans of another orange and blue New York team may also be reminded of Stephon Marbury, the former New York Knicks guard who was paid his regular salary to not be with the team in 2008 — and was told he would be fined if he did show up to practice.

Essentially, Marbury was paid less if he tried to show up and do his job. He was ordered to stay away from the team as the Knicks were negotiating a buyout of his $21 million contract, Reuters reported in 2008.

Marbury’s former Minnesota Timberwolves teammate, Kevin Garnett, along with Bruce Sutter and Manny Ramirez are among the other long-retired athletes still getting paid.

Come 2035, when the Mets will finally be off the hook, they will have paid Bonilla $29.8 million for the 2000 baseball season in which he played for their division rival, Atlanta Braves.

Bonilla will make more money for that season than all but 50 baseball players have in a single season in Major League Baseball history, according to BaseballReference.com. It will amount to more money than current baseball stars Bryce Harper, Joey Votto and Kris Bryant make individually in 2021.

The Mets actually made the World Series in 2000, without Bonilla, but lost to their “Subway Series” rival New York Yankees, four games to one.