Bonilla’s Millions

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• Seligman January 12, 2011 at 9:02 am

  Great job in explaining what so many fail to grasp. The Wilpons made millions more than what they will be paying Bonilla and it was a smart move by them. I wish they could do the same thing with Perez and Castillo.
  • The Coop January 12, 2011 at 9:22 am

    Thank you, Seligman. Unfortunately, I don’t think Luis or Ollie have any kind of deferred payment clauses. Believe me, that would be preferable to what they have now!
    • Mookie January 12, 2011 at 9:57 am

      I had no idea that the deferred payments clause were included in the original contract. I thought it was something they simply worked out between the two parties.
      • The Coop January 12, 2011 at 10:00 am

        For the record, I don’t know if a deferred payment clause was included in Bonilla’s contract per se. It’s just par for the course with a few contracts – usually if they hit X amount of innings or ABs, it will “vest” and they get paid.

        I don’t know if that was Bonilla’s case, but it very well could have been. It was not just a fly by the seat of their pants decision by Wilpon & Co. It was not a bad deal for them.
  • METS62FAN January 12, 2011 at 9:36 am

    Selig, u never know about Luis; but dealing with Boras over Perez, may eventually lead to what many want(an ownership change; but Ollie nmay be the owner once begind his fenagling(lmao).
    Back to Bonilla, ion 1999 the NYM payroll was 71.3M of which Nonilla’s 5 represents approx 7% of total payroll. in 2010 payroll was 134M.
    for NYM payroll history visit;
    http://content.usatoday.com/SPORTS/BASEBALL/SALARIES/teamresults.aspx?team=25
    tThat same 5M rep resent only 3.7M of 2010′s payroll; however, I believe Bonilla’s account as well as other deferred $$$ owed were held in escrow as part of the Maidoff investment. If true, that twist certainly bunches up Cioop’s panties & he should take his MBA & run(lol) It’s certainly possibkle that the estimated 48M in “profit” rerived from withdrawals prior to Maidoff exposure was tranferance of these Escrow account from Long-ter to short-term holdings accounts with differing acc’t mngt.
  • Mookie January 12, 2011 at 9:57 am

    That would have ben a great idea, but I guess if it were possible they would have done it already. Too bad.
• The Coop January 12, 2011 at 11:10 am

  Something else to consider with the whole idea of deferred payments: Kris Benson announced his retirement yesterday, and he is getting paid for the next 8 years due to the structure of his contract with the Mets. So even though he did not retire with them, there might have been an opt-out or deferred payment clause when they traded him that he took that. Either way, he gets paid but this way probably works better for the Mets long and short term. I wonder though, how many of these contracts are structured like that, and how many players are still being paid by the Mets.
• t agee January 12, 2011 at 2:53 pm

  Thanks Coop for the article, Even if the money does work out even or whatever I’m sure it was invested with the crook and the Mets take that hit. Then Benson, Santana, Bay and probably plenty of others contracts are back loaded or deferred. Then they give away draft choices on older players with more deferred money or backloaded deals. It’s always who can we get and how little can we pay them in their first year(s) Always about today, never tomorrow. That’s why we’re broke in 2011. We can’t do s**t because we have no one coming up, 140 committed on Oct 1st and STILL have the same damn holes to fill every ‘effin year.

  Just look at the Bonilla situation again for a second. We make a bad signing because as usual we have nobody in the minor leagues. OK it happens. Not anywhere near as often as it happens to us but, OK. Get rid of Bonilla thankfully and we then make another s**t a***d deal for Rojas, once again because we, as usual, have no one. Another bad sign. What else is new. So then we decide to take on more money and more years because this time we are convinced that Bobby Bo really does love us. After all he looked Steve and young Jeff right in the eye and told them so. The gullibleness of the Wilpon is only exceeded by the neediness of the Wilpon. Always so needy at 5, 10, 15 positions on a 25 man roster. And you know, they think their smarter than everyone else. They think they can exchange a bad situation for an even WORSE situation and come out of it as a winner. After all Bobby Bo swore to love the Wilpon forever.

  Let me tell you Bobby Bo never gave a fiddler’s f**k about the Wilpon, the Met Fan or the Mets and neither did Vince Coleman, Roberto Alomar, Mo Vaughn, Rickey Henderson or any of these other freaks they keep bringing in here.

  It’s all just a 3 card monte deal. Give us something with only the most promising possible outlook, a little creative accounting and poof! 103 losses. 25 years later their still pulling the same old s**t.

  Playing cards in the clubhouse during a playoff game. This is the kind of commitment you get with players on their last contract. That’s all they want from the Mets, one last payday.

  This is why we have Boof Bonser to look forward to in 2011.
  • The Coop January 12, 2011 at 3:18 pm

    I have another piece in the works for my other site that I may bring over here. Some of this research has opened my eyes to how the Mets have thrown money around like drunken sailors on leave. This stuff is truly scary and if true, then Alderson has his work cut out for him and we should be applauding him for staying away from the insanity.
    • t agee January 12, 2011 at 9:23 pm

      Coop, I hope you do bring it over here I would love to read it. Thanks.
• Nona Lovasz January 17, 2011 at 4:32 pm

  I do know that is actually boring and you’re skipping to the following comment, however I just wished to throw you an enormous thanks – you cleared up some issues for me!