Greatest contract of all time. I can't believe a group of people leading a giant organization thought that was a good idea.
Deferring $6 million caused them to pay $1+ million every year for 25 years? Man that's some rough interest/inflation
Funny part is the agent for Bonilla tried to get his other clients to do it and they laughed at him. Pretty sure one was Jose Canseco
Friend of ours played ball with canseco, roomed together in minors, I alway like to needle him and say he slept with him,
What a savvy move by Bonilla and his agent. Isnt Ichiro's contract set up that way or was when he was with Seattle?
The Mets were investors of Bernie Madoff and had calculated that they'd come out ahead by deferring the payment. Except they invested in a ponzi scheme. Madoff was returning 12 to 15 percent a year in what we now know were fictional returns. So deferring deals wasn't a problem because the payout would occur years later and the interest rate would be lower than the money they were (fictionally) getting back from Madoff. To see the deal as the Mets would have seen it, let's say the Wilpons put $5.9 million into a Madoff account in 2000 and got a conservative (by Madoff standards) 10 percent annual return. By 2011, when they would have to pay Bonilla for the first time, they would have already grown their pot to $16.83 million. Even with paying off Bonilla every year, they would wind up with a $49 million profit on the deal. Of course, the Madoff returns weren't real, which complicates this hindsight.
Their break even annualized return was 8%, which is the historical Dow/S&P return rate. Somehow this needs to be explained to everyone, every year.
They didn't need to beat it to be financially prudent. And the deferred cash gave them room in the budget to sign Mike Hampton, who was a 4.5 WAR pitcher in a year they ultimately ended up as the NL Wildcard, and went to the World Series. So it made a ton of baseball sense as well.
Speaking of Hampton, is he still getting paid as well, or is that monstrosity of a contract finished?
$9,545,986: What the Mets have paid so far for Bobby Bonilla’s 2000 season, including the $1,193,248.20 annual payment they give Bonilla today. The last game Bonilla played for the Mets was October 19, 1999.
#New York Mets are paying Pete Alonso $555,000 this season, less than half of what they are paying Bobby Bonilla ($1.19 million)
You get to learn about deferred compensation, interest, and remember Bernie Madoff is a slime ball. You also get to laugh at the Mets if you're a hater and enjoy the fact Bonilla didn't perform for them. I get more out of this day than St Patrick's day anymore.
Way to go Mets. They would go on to give up 9 more runs as the braves played backups and a few guys that were drunk in the upper deck.