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Happy Bobby Bonilla Day!

TheReff

TheReff

Rod Griffin
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Every July 1, Bobby Bo gets his $1.19 million check from the Mets. Until the year 2035!!!
All because of an ill thought out buyout of his $5.9 mill contract in the year 2000. Instead of taking the cash up front, Bobby Bo wisely thought of taking $30 mill spread out from 2011 to 2035.(at 8% interest no less)

The Mets “thought” they were poised to make much more thru Bernie Madoff’s ponzi scheme.
 
And here’s my annual defense of BobbyBo Day.

By deferring the $ owed to Bonilla, the Mets were able to sign Mike Hampton. Hampton become their ace and Without Hampton, the Mets don’t win the pennant in 2000.

They then trade Hampton to the Rockies for the pick they use to get…….David Wright.

While ludicrous, I’m good with BobbyBo day (still better than Manning’s contract and with better returns).
 
They also have like $13M still left that they can use however they want to instead of just paying him a lump sum.
 
IamThunderbolt said:
The Mets are also still paying Brett Saberhagen $250k a year for 5 more years
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Went to a Patriots game back in 2000 with Saberhagen and Kent Mercker (my father had a friend who was mutual friends with Saberhagen and Mercker). 15 year old me got to play catch in the parking lot of the old Foxboro Stadium with the two of them; Saberhagen's wife made a damn good lasagna for the tailgate.
 
Bobby Bo was very shrewd. Ken "The Kid" Griffey, Jr., is still the highest paid Red b/c of a similar deal he cut with Cincinnati
 
Meanwhile the Mookie Betts payout that starts a decade from now

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WindyCityDeac said:
5.9M invested at 8% annually over 23 yrs would be 34.6M. It was a win for both sides. One of the greatest myths of all time is that Bobby Bonilla fleeced the Mets.
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Yeah. It’s not like Bobby Bonilla or his agent invented deferred compensation. What do people think pensions, social security, 401k, etc, are? This method of payment happens in almost every job across the country (and world). $1.2 million a year is a rounding error, and it’s hardly the reason the Mets suck. Bonilla was a really good player. I don’t get the myth that has developed around this day.
 
Bobby Bonilla was a really good player with the Pirates and his first time with the Mets.

37-year-old Bobby Bonilla, on the contract that ultimately gave him his deferred compensation from the Mets, was a below replacement level major league player.
 
WindyCityDeac said:
5.9M invested at 8% annually over 23 yrs would be 34.6M. It was a win for both sides. One of the greatest myths of all time is that Bobby Bonilla fleeced the Mets.
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The real point of the deferred deal was that they ‘thought’ Bernie Madoff was going to make them so much more with his Ponzi schemes. So Bobby Bo didn’t fleece the Mets, Madoff did.
 
No.

The differed payout was not because of hope on Madoff. It was about being able to bring in talent that year rather than paying Bobby Bo. It’s not like they saved the money and invested it. They used it to sign Hampton.

And yes, the Wilpons were friends with Madoff and lost a shit ton of money and that affected the Mets’ payroll in the early 2010s (for which the Wilpons had to pay restitution) but that had nothing to do with the Bonilla deal.
 
TheReff said:
The real point of the deferred deal was that they ‘thought’ Bernie Madoff was going to make them so much more with his Ponzi schemes. So Bobby Bo didn’t fleece the Mets, Madoff did.
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Madoff did fleece the Mets but that had nothing to do with this. It was smart business for the Mets to do, it was fine business for Bonilla to do…although you could argue he’d be better off had he taken the money and invested it wisely.
 
WindyCityDeac said:
Madoff did fleece the Mets but that had nothing to do with this. It was smart business for the Mets to do, it was fine business for Bonilla to do…although you could argue he’d be better off had he taken the money and invested it wisely.
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That’s not how the account written of how this came about in 2000 by Dan Mullen of ESPN.com. He writes in 7/1/2023 that it was because the Mets ownership were invested in a Bernie Madoff account that promised double digit returns and the Mets were poised to make a significant profit if the Madoff account paid off (it did not work out)
 
TheReff said:
That’s not how the account written of how this came about in 2000 by Dan Mullen of ESPN.com. He writes in 7/1/2023 that it was because the Mets ownership were invested in a Bernie Madoff account that promised double digit returns and the Mets were poised to make a significant profit if the Madoff account paid off (it did not work out)
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I’ve seen that written multiple places. And I’ve never seen anyone from the Mets cite this as a reason. It feels very much like hindsight. “Oh that must be why they did the Bonilla deal this way”. I’m not buying it… deferred compensation isn’t unique and it’s not even very much money annually. So the idea that they were counting on the Madoff money to pay $1.19M a year is ludicrous
 
WindyCityDeac said:
I’ve seen that written multiple places. And I’ve never seen anyone from the Mets cite this as a reason. It feels very much like hindsight. “Oh that must be why they did the Bonilla deal this way”. I’m not buying it… deferred compensation isn’t unique and it’s not even very much money annually. So the idea that they were counting on the Madoff money to pay $1.19M a year is ludicrous
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I could see greedy people wanting the lump sum payout to invest in Madoff deal. Hence the willingness to make a deal for a much larger total payout in the future.
 
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