MLB: There’s no contract more legendary than Bonilla’s deal
The New York Mets, desperately trying to return to the postseason in Major League Baseball’s upcoming 60-game season, whipped out their chequebook and acquired three veteran free agents in the last 24 hours.
They signed former Blue Jays outfielder Melky Cabrera, infielder Gordon Beckham and reliever Jared Hughes. If they make the Mets’ big-league roster, they’ll be paid a combined total of $948,443 (U.S.).
That’s $244,805 less than a 57-year-old who hasn’t played a day for the Mets in 21 years, but will be the seventh highest-paid position player on their payroll this year. Bobby Bonilla.
Just as they have every July 1 since 2011, the Mets wrote out a cheque to Bonilla on Wednesday for $1,193,248.20.
There are hundreds of players who have received deferred salaries over the years, but no contract is more legendary than Bonilla’s deal. He signed a fiveyear, $29-million contract in 1991, the largest in baseball history at the time, that now pays him through 2035.
The former agent who orchestrated the deal, Dennis Gilbert, now a Chicago White Sox executive, negotiated thousands of player contracts, including those of Barry Bonds and George Brett, and sold life insurance policies to the likes of Michael Jackson and Robin Williams, but not a single one generated anything remotely close to the fascination of Bonilla’s deal.
“I’ve always been so sensitive to players being financially stable after retirement,” Gilbert said. “What is a ballplayer trained for in the afterlife? It’s like being a king. It trains you for nothing else. In Bobby’s case, I wanted to make sure Bobby was secure for life.”
Bonilla was bigger than life at the time. He had four teams offering him at least $25 million in free agency, Gilbert said. In their first night in New York during negotiations, Bonilla and Gilbert ate at a restaurant three blocks away from their hotel.
“It took 45 minutes to get back,” Gilbert said. “Everyone kept stopping Bobby and asking for pictures and autographs. Bobby got back and said, “This is home!”
Bonilla was in New York for three-plus years, when he was traded to Baltimore, and returned to the Mets in 1999. He was released after that season but still was owed $5.9 million in 2000. The Mets, wanting to free up cash and believing they could easily finance the payments with investments they made with Bernie Madoff, negotiated a deal that would defer Bonilla’s payments at an 8-percent interest rate beginning in 2011.
Madoff later was sentenced to 150 years in prison as the architect of the world’s largest Ponzi scheme, worth $64.8 billion. Bonilla, meanwhile, ended up with a $29.8-million nest egg that has turned into a nightmare for Mets owners Fred and Jeff Wilpon.
“Bobby was involved with the talks every step of the way,” Gilbert said. “Bobby was frugal. He didn’t need a lot of money to live on. He never lived extravagantly, always lived within his means. So he was always open to it from the inception.”
And these days, with the federal interest rate at 0.25 per cent, go ahead and try to find a better financial rate.
“You look around this game, and you see what’s happening to guys,” said Gilbert. “You look at the layoffs. The huge salary cuts. It’s tough to survive. Thankfully, Bobby will never have to worry about that.”
This year, Bonilla will make nearly five times the amount of Mets star Pete Alonso, who set a rookie record with 53 homers last year, and will be paid $241,674 in his pro-rated deal.
Alonso could be a star for years. But to think he’ll ever be paid nearly $1.2 million a year until the age of 72?
“I’m not sure,” Gilbert said, “we’ll ever see anything like it again.”