THE CONTRACT

September 24, 2023

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Let's dive in.

Today's story is about the most lopsided contract in baseball history.

Bobby Bonilla day has become something like an annual holiday for baseball fans across the world.

Every year on July 1st, Bonilla receives a check for $1.19 million from the New York Mets.

In hindsight, it’s clear who got the better deal here, but how the hell did Bonilla get the Mets to agree to this in the first place?

Bonilla's career spanned from '86 to '01, and he played for several teams, including the Pittsburgh Pirates, Florida Marlins, and the Mets.

He was a six-time All-Star and won a World Series with the Marlins in '97.

In '99, the Mets owed Bobby $5.9 million for the final year of his contract.

The team needed to clear salary cap space in order to make room for other player acquisitions.

So instead of paying Bonilla the full amount, New York agreed to defer the payment and give him annual installments of $1.19 million from 2011 to 2035.

This means that Bonilla will receive a total of $29.8 million in deferred payments, more than five times the original amount of his contract.

That's definitely enough cash to take a nap on.

The contract has been the subject of much debate and criticism over the years.

Some have called it a sweetheart deal for Bonilla, while others argue that it was a smart financial move for the Mets.

But given the fact that New York has not won a World Series since this deal, and they're still paying Bobby Bonilla, I'd say he got the better end of this one.

And it definitely set a precedent for future negotiations.

Even Ken Griffey Jr. took a page out of Bonilla's book and had the Reds defer almost 50% of his contract.

He gets $3.6 million a year from Cincinnati, and is STILL the 4th-highest paid player on the Reds even though he hasn’t played in over a decade.

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STRANGE NAMES

If you're just joining us, we play this game every day where we try to find the weirdest names throughout baseball history.

Why?

Don't ask us, it's just something we like to do.

If you've been rocking with us for awhile now, you know what time it is.

Today's winner is:

“Alexa, play Every Morning by Sugar Ray.”

Ahh takes me back to the summer of ‘99.

Believe it or not, this isn’t a nickname - Marimon’s birth name is actually Sugar Ray.

Unfortunately, there was nothing sweet about his time in the big leagues; he threw just under 26 innings total, and got absolutely shelled.

THE DEAD LEGENDS ARCHIVE

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