What is Bobby Bonilla Day? Explaining MLB's history of deferred contracts

New York Times

10 hours ago

When the New York Mets flip their calendar to July 1, it's time for them to send an annual check to Bobby Bonilla. Bobby Bonilla Day has become an unofficial, quirky and beloved annual holiday for baseball fans.
On Tuesday, Bonilla will receive $1.9 million from the Mets as part of the deferred payment structure of a former contract. From 2011 to 2035, Bonilla gets a check every July 1. Bonilla will be 72 years old when he receives his final Mets check.
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Bonilla's is the most famous deferred deal in MLB history, but other players have received similar contract structures, including Los Angeles Dodgers two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani.
How did Bonilla get this deal, and who else has one? Let's dive in.
Ahead of the 1997 season, Bonilla signed a four-year, $23.3 million contract with the Miami Marlins. He won the World Series with the Marlins that year, but the club traded him during the following year to the Dodgers. Bonilla finished out the 1998 season before being traded back to the Mets in November, the franchise with which he was an All-Star in 1993 and 1995.
But Bonilla had a rough 1999 season with the Mets, marred by a tense relationship with manager Bobby Valentine and hitting .160 in only 60 games. The club wanted to move on from Bonilla in the offseason and agreed to buy out the remaining $5.9 million on his contract.
But instead of giving the right fielder a lump sum, the Mets and Bonilla's agent, Dennis Gilbert, negotiated a 25-year deferred payment plan with eight percent interest starting on July 1, 2011.
Bonilla went on to play two more MLB seasons — 2000 with the Atlanta Braves and 2001 with the St. Louis Cardinals — before he retired.
Across 16 major-league seasons, Bonilla batted .279 with 2,010 hits and 287 home runs in 2,113 regular-season games, earned six All-Star selections and won three Silver Slugger awards. He played for eight teams.
The reason a team might want to defer a player's salary or any remaining contract owed is largely to retain financial flexibility in the short term.
That is what made the Dodgers' deal with Ohtani so fascinating: Ohtani will be paid just $2 million a year in each of the 10 years of his deal, then he will receive $68 million per year from 2034 through 2043, making Bonilla's deal look like penny stocks.
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Speaking of stocks, the Mets originally offered Bonilla the deferred payments of the $5.9 million they owed him because they thought they could exceed the deferral payments by investing that $5.9 million in Bernie Madoff's fund, which, up until that point, had produced meaningful returns for then-Mets owner Fred Wilpon. Madoff's fund, of course, turned out to be a Ponzi scheme. The payments owed to Bonilla remain intact.
As for Bonilla and other players like Ohtani, the value of the deferred payment is that, over time, the money accrued surpasses the money originally owed, even accounting for basic principles of finance that a dollar today is worth more than a dollar years from now.
If the player can afford to defer the payments (and is certain the team can continue making those contractually obligated payments well into the future, which is a safe bet with an MLB team), the payoff can dramatically exceed what the team could pay you in the present day, as Bonilla and Mets fans celebrate annually. — Dan Shanoff, sports business managing editor
Team owner Steve Cohen has acknowledged the intrigue surrounding Bobby Bonilla Day. After buying the team in 2020, Cohen suggested to a fan on X that the Mets could lean into the holiday and present Bonilla with a big check at Citi Field every July 1.
Let's take a vote .How about we have a Bobby Bonilla day every year .Hand him an oversized check and drive a lap around the stadium.Could be fun
— Steven Cohen (@StevenACohen2) November 20, 2020
Cohen and the Mets have never done this, but instead, planned an Airbnb promotion in honor of Bobby Bonilla Day in 2021 for four fans to rent a VIP suite and spend the night at Citi Field.
The Dodgers signed Ohtani to a 10-year, $700 million contract in 2023 that included a series of unprecedented deferrals, paying him $68 million per year over nine years. The deferred money is to be paid out without interest and gives the Dodgers payroll flexibility.
Other notable deferrals: