Bobby Bonilla Day: Contract Details For New York Mets' Payments To Retired MLB Star

The New York Mets are having their best season in six years, but it’s a player who hasn’t suited up for the team in over two decades that’s in the news Thursday. July 1 has become known as Bobby Bonilla Day among baseball fans, marking the time each year in which the Mets pay the former slugger.

Bonilla hasn’t played an MLB game since 2001, and he was last in the Mets’ lineup in 1999. Yet, New York gave Bonilla $1,193,248.20 on Thursday, which they will do every July 1 through 2035. The Mets started making the annual payments to Bonilla in 2011.

Why are the Mets still paying a 58-year-old who last played for the team when Jacob deGrom was 11 years old? The arrangement stems from the four-year, $23.3 million contract Bonilla signed with the Florida Marlins in 1996.

After being traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1998, Bonilla was sent to the Mets for the 1999 season. With his best days far behind him, Bonilla was limited to a .160 batting average and four home runs in 60 games. Rather than pay Bonilla the $5.9 million in 2000 that he was owed for the final year of his contract, the Mets struck a deal with the outfielder that birthed the unofficial holiday.

The two sides agreed on a buyout, delaying payments to Bonilla until 2011. Instead of giving Bonilla $5.9 million in 2000, New York would start paying him 11 years later with 25 straight annual payments of $1.2 million. The deferred payments include 8% interest.

Mets ownership had expected to earn a significant profit from 2000-2011 because of investments they made with Bernie Madoff, according to ESPN. That plan did not come to fruition.

Many fans might mistakenly think the Mets current payments to Bonilla are part of the historic contract he signed with New York in 1991. Bonilla signed a five-year, $29 million deal for his first stint with the Mets, making him the highest-paid player in team sports at the time.

Coming off a pair of top-three NL MVP finishes with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Bonilla never reached those heights in New York. Bonilla was traded to the Baltimore Orioles in 1995 after three and a half seasons with the Mets, less than four years before his brief second stint in the Big Apple.

The Mets have since embraced Bobby Bonilla Day, making light of the situation on social media. New York will be paying Bonilla until he’s 72 years old.

Bonilla has made just under $70 million from his playing career, according to Spotrac. He finished his MLB career with 287 home runs, six All-Star appearances and a World Series title.