Impetus: Washington Nationals sign pitcher Stephen Strasburg to 7-year deal/extension, worth $175 million dollars
The best thing about baseball contracts like this one is that when the day is over, seldom do the initial headlines come remotely close to the actual payouts by the teams that make these ludicrous deals, paying grown-ass men to play kids’ games.
Case in point, one of the most notorious ironically humorous baseball contracts in history is Bobby Bonilla’s contract signed in 1996. On paper, Bobby Bonilla signed with the Florida Marlins on a deal that dictated he would be paid $23.3 million dollars over four years. Sounds simple enough, right?
The Marlins being the Marlins (read: cheap), would eventually trade Bonilla away in 1998, but the rules of a contract state that the acquiring team assume responsibility of remaining salary, unless negotiated in the deal. The Dodgers paid the remainder of is 1998 salary, before trading him to the Mets after the season, so the Mets would be on the hook for the 1999 and 2000 portions of his deal.
Bonilla was such a clubhouse cancer with the Mets that after 1999, the Mets wanted to be rid of Bonilla, and Bonilla was more than happy to continue his career elsewhere. The problem was that the Mets were still contractually on the hook for the remaining $5.9 million dollars on the deal, but frankly didn’t want to pay it, citing the need to cut payroll and organizational rebuilding.
Ultimately, the Mets and Bonilla came to an agreement, which has to this very day, become one of the greatest jokes in all of baseball history, and a huge contributor to why the Mets remain such a butt of baseball jokes.
Instead of paying Bobby Bonilla $5.9 million dollars in 2000, the Mets would pay him $0. However, it was agreed upon that starting in 2011, the Mets would begin paying Bobby Bonilla approximately $1,193.248.20 every July 1st – for the next 25 years.
It doesn’t take a genius to quickly realize the math doesn’t even come close to equaling the $5.9 million dollars that he was owed in 2000, but closer to five times the amount, $30 million dollars, by the time 2035 rolls around.
The Mets have to live with always having Bobby Bonilla thrown at them in tacky arguments, while Bobby Bonilla, whose career ended in 2001, will cash in every July 1st for pretty much the prime of his retirement years, laughing all the way to the bank, along with the baseball fans who love to make fun of the Mets.
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