Every July 1, the New York Mets send a check to former infielder Bobby Bonilla. The 63-year-old receives $1,193,248.20 annually, a payment the team has made each July 1 since 2011 and will continue through 2035.
The arrangement stems from a 2000 buyout of the remaining $5.9 million on Bonilla’s contract. Rather than pay the lump sum, the Mets agreed to 25 annual payments beginning July 1, 2011, with an 8% negotiated interest rate. Mets ownership at the time had expected to offset the deal through returns from a Bernie Madoff account, a plan that ultimately did not materialize.
Bonilla last played for the Mets in 1999 and made his final major league appearance with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2001. Under the deferred schedule, he will continue to receive payments through 2035, when he will be 72. New owner Steve Cohen has publicly referenced the idea of marking the day at Citi Field, and the team has embraced the annual observance.
Deferred contracts are not unique to Bonilla. According to ESPN Research, other long-running arrangements include a second Bonilla plan paying $500,000 a year beginning in 2004; Bret Saberhagen receiving $250,000 a year from the Mets starting in 2004; Max Scherzer collecting $105 million paid through 2028 from Washington; Manny Ramírez receiving a final $24.2 million total from Boston through 2026; and Chris Davis’ schedule of roughly $59 million in deferred payments running through 2037, with specific annual amounts outlined by ESPN.
Deferred pay has been a prominent topic in recent offseasons, particularly with the Los Angeles Dodgers. According to ESPN, the Dodgers structured Shohei Ohtani’s deal to delay $680 million of a $700 million agreement, resulting in $2 million a year during the contract’s 10 seasons and $68 million annually from 2034 to 2043. The arrangement also affects how the contract counts toward the Dodgers’ competitive balance tax payroll.
Because of rookie and early-career pay scales in baseball, some current players earn less in a season than Bonilla’s annual payment, illustrating how deferred deals can outlast and outsize on-field earnings for younger players.
