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For several years now, July 1 has been dubbed “Bobby Bonilla Day” because of the annual payment of over $1 million the six-time MLB All-Star gets from the New York Mets.
For those unfamiliar, Bobby Bonilla had over 2,000 hits and drove in more than 1,100 runs during his impressive baseball career which spanned from 1986 to 2001.
Despite those great statistics, he actually may be best known for the deal he made with the Mets in which the team must pay him $1.19 million on July 1 every year from 2011 through 2035.
Another little known fact is that Bobby Bonilla also will have been paid $500,000 from the Baltimore Orioles each year from 2004 to 2028.
At the time of Bonilla’s deals, deferring payments to Major League Baseball players was a rarity. It turned out to be a genius move though because since his retirement in 2001, Bonilla has been paid more than $27 million to not play baseball by the Mets and O’s.
When all is said and done, Bobby Bonilla will have received more than $42 million after he actually stopped playing.
What’s even crazier is that in 2022, Bonilla was the 26th highest paid player on the Mets payroll and the 29th highest paid player on the Orioles.
Now, however, Bobby Bonilla is not alone in receiving big cash payments from Major League Baseball teams for not playing.
For example, Ken Griffey Jr., who last played for the Reds in 2008, has been getting $3.59 million from the Cincinnati Reds every year since 2009. That deal will finally expire in 2024.
More examples include former MLB slugger Chris Davis, who will be making $59 million from 2023 to 2037 (again paid by the Orioles). He last played in Major League Baseball in 2020.
Max Scherzer will get $15 million a year from the Nationals between 2022 and 2028 – a team he hasn’t played for since 2021.
And Ichiro Suzuki, who retired after the 2019 season, will be getting paid more than $25 million by the Seattle Mariners through the year 2032.
Among current players, Freddie Freeman will be getting paid by the Dodgers until the year 2040, Rafael Devers’ contract with the Red Sox runs until 2043, while the Mets will be on the hook for Francisco Lindor until 2041 and Edwin Diaz until 2042.
Of course, there soon will come a time when “Bobby Bonilla Day” is no longer a thing and gets replaced by “Shohei Ohtani Day.”
Ohtani, who famously signed with the Dodgers this past offseason, will receive $68 million on July 1 every year for 10 years between 2034 and 2043. Perfect timing as Bonilla’s deal comes to an end in 2035.