Happy Bobby Bonilla Day.

Happy Bobby Bonilla Day. Jul 1, 2021 21:43:21 GMT millar70 likes this

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Post by klawrencio79 on Jul 1, 2021 21:43:21 GMT

Jul 1, 2021 21:33:36 GMT millar70 said:

Jul 1, 2021 21:24:24 GMT klawrencio79 said:

Mostly because a lot of teams have contractual situations like this (with people equally as ineffective as Bonilla - see Bruce Sutter, as referenced above), yet the Bonilla example is the only one people talk about, or even know about in the first place.

Really? There are a lot of teams in the same situation with contracts like Bonilla? That's news to me.

I follow the Red Sox and Giants pretty closely, and I don't believe either team has a situation like that, though I could be wrong.

Yup, some of them are players who were much more successful than Bonilla (the Red Sox pay Manny Ramirez nearly $2m per year from 2011 - 2026, probably worth it given how awesome he was) and the Reds pay Griffey Jr. about $3m per year from '09 until 2024 (probably not worth it). To be honest, it gets to my point - nobody really knows about these types of contracts, they just know Bonilla. But they're a lot more prevalent than most people know, including longstanding baseball fans such as yourself.

The most glaring example is Bruce Sutter:

Bruce Sutter may be the closest to Bobby Bonilla in terms of the amount of deferred payments that he's received. In 1984, Sutter signed a six-year contract that paid him $4.8 million. His Braves tenure was highlighted by injuries. Sutter annually receives $1.12 million from the Atlanta Braves and will continue to receive payments until 2022. The payments began in 1991, which means that Sutter has been receiving deferred payments for 30 years. In addition, the Braves will also have to pay Sutter one final check for $9.1 million when the deferred payments stop. It's pretty impressive that Sutter is receiving more than $10 million a whopping 35 years after he announced his retirement

Then there's Chris Davis, who will receive $3.5m from 2023 until 2032, and then $1.4m from 2033 - 2037. Todd Helton, Paul Konerko, Matt Holliday, Kevin Garnett, and others are still on active payrolls. Prince Fielder made $24m last year and since he wasn't part of the pro rata salary group of the covid-year, that means Fielder was baseball's highest player last year (the last year of his contract). That's right.

Also, as part of Chris Sale's deal, he'll get $10m per year from 2035 - 2039.