A MMO Fan Shot by Greg Jones

Okay, sensational headline, so let’s walk that back to the safety of the shore. Parsing down to financial deals, and setting aside No, No, Nanette, the Bonilla deal was one of the best in MLB history, setting some parameters, and certainly one of the best in Mets history, anyway. It gets crapped on every July 1 when Bobby receives his $1.19 million, and every few years I have to sit some young Mets fan on my knee, figuratively, and explain how fantastic the Bobby Bonilla deferred payment turned out for the Wilpons and the Mets.

What You Know By Heart:

The Mets owed Bobby Bonilla, who had become Bad At Baseball, $5.9 million for the 2000 season. As every schoolchild in America New York can recite, the Mets owners, the Wilpons, worked out a deal whereby, or possibly in which, the 5.9M was deferred by the Mets at 8 percent interest. No payments were due for ten years, and then paid out over a 25-year period. Every July 1, on Bobby Bonilla Day, an actual thing, Bonilla is paid $1.19 million, and Mets fans, (who do not kick in) curse the Wilpons, rend their clothes and emit piercing ululations. The latter is made using the uvula, which I bet you didn’t know.

Reading You In:

Okay, so, the Mets signed Bonilla before the 1992 season, after the slugging third baseman delivered four straight All Star campaigns, once leading the league in Sacrifice Flies, which he didn’t talk about much. During this period Bobby Bonilla was Good At Baseball. The Mets signed him to a five-year deal for $29 million, which paid him a record $6.1 million in 1992, nosing out the previous record by $2.3 million. That deal contained a deferred payment plan where in/by the Mets paid Bonilla 500k a year from 2004-2023, which I bet you didn’t know, because that isn’t even the infamous celebrated deal (i.e.:July 1)

Bonilla, a Bronx native, arrived in New York announcing that the New York press would not “wipe the smile off his face,” a media dare that startled a screaming Gary Hart out of a deep sleep. Editors across Manhattan leaned across their desk, ground out their stogies, and bellowed for the cellar orcs famed for smile wiping.

Bonilla, however, slugged two home runs in his debut as a Met on April 6, 1992 in an Opening Day victory, and the tabloids dutifully pictured a Bonilla smiling that killer smile on their back page. The Mets…..to fast forward a bit….promptly went 1-7 en route to a 72 win season in 1992, and won 59 games in 1993 and finished seventh which you may have forgotten was even a thing.

With Jeff Torborg at the helm, smiling was not an option, leaving Bonilla at a social disadvantage. Despite having pretty good seasons, including 34 home runs in 1993, the sentiment began to grow that perhaps the Mets could finish 7th without the now crab-faced $6 million slugger.

After the strike shortened 1994 season, the Mets were 19 games out at the trading deadline in 1995, and Bonilla was swapped to the Orioles for the promising Alex Ochoa and the less promising Damon Buford, both of whom broke their promises and exit our story here. Actually, there was also a Player To Be Named Later who turned out to be named Jimmy Williamson, who never made the show.

Baltimore and the Mets arrived at a split of the remaining deferred 2004-2023 payments on Bonilla. If interested you can find the details of the split, because I couldn’t. But, the takeaway here – that was Phase 1 of the Bobby Bonilla deferred payment kerfluffle….it is a two act play. The original deal was partially unloaded, and the Orioles got some of that hot mess on them.

Bobby Bonilla continued his journey, finishing the Mets deal in 1996 with the Os, signing as a free agent with the Marlins, then being traded to Los Angeles in the Piazza blockbuster.

<snaps fingers> If you have been dozing, re-engage at this time.

The Mets, after finishing third, and second respectively, with 88, 88 wins in, respectively, 1997 and 1998, were locked and loaded for 1999. The team featured the newly acquired Piazza behind the plate, Rickey Henderson leading off, Ventura, Olerud, Alfonso, Leiter, Hershiser, and John Franco to tidy up. Smarting from their perennial runner up status, they naturally turned their lonely eyes to the Los Angeles Dodgers and unnaturally, the bat of Bobby Bonilla.

After a decent start to 1998 with the Marlins, Bonilla was part of the Piazza, Sheffield, Zeile…..everybody deal, going to the Dodgers on May 14, 1998. There Bonilla crashed/slashed .237/.315/.360/.675 in 236 at-bats, coupled with appallingly play at third base, and seemed to be clearly No Longer Good At Baseball (NLGABB). The Mets, as mentioned above, were looking to load up for 1999 and for whatever reason, swapped the roughly equally bad contract of Mel Rojas, taking on the $5.9 million for 1999 while shedding $4.5 million due Rojas in 1999.

Don’t Date Your Ex

Unsurprisingly, Bobby Bo was NLGABB in 1999 at Age 36, as he would continue to be at Age 37 and Age 38, and undoubtedly is at Age Now. After mid-June he was strictly used off the bench by the Mets, and his final slash was .160/.277/.303/.579, which is the grade you get for spelling your name right at the top of the test. He then leaned into his crater by being caught playing cards in the clubhouse with Rickey Henderson during — during, mind you– the Mets thrilling 11-inning NLCS Game 6 loss to the Braves, which eliminated them from the 1999 playoffs. He didn’t even want the Participation Trophy.

The journalism orcs from Chapter One emerged in full chattering fury, and the Mets were still looking up at the Braves and their league best pitching staff. To paint the whole picture, it is important to note that in this fall of 1999, the Mets, for the first time in their history, paid a competitive balance tax of $1.1 million as one of the top five salaried teams in baseball. The tax took a break after 1999 to 2002, but I don’t know that the Mets saw that coming, and that million bucks undoubtedly had the Wilpons gnashing their teeth in rage. They decided that paying $5.9 million to have Bonilla to not play for them in 2000 was a fine investment, particularly if they could spread out the payments. If GM Steve Phillips wanted to add an ace, he was going to have to cut some deadwood (mouthed the Wilpons pointing pointedly but furtively at Bonilla.)

America being what it was back then before socialism, nobody wanted the $5.9 million, .160 batting, inappropriate pokering, no smile-having, sucky Bonilla. So Wilpon got together with Bonilla’s agent, who shall remain nameless. He and Scott hammered out the famous deal, spitting on their palms and shaking and then marking their calendars for ten years from now. Bonilla wound up with his Age 37 in Atlanta and his Age 38 with the Cards. From the moment the Marlins traded Bonilla to the Dodgers his WAR turned negative and stayed there for the dregs of his career. In other words, unloading him after 1999 was a solid baseball move as far as on-field results.

Damn Math Here

Let’s talk about this, but not in too much depth, since my last math textbook was entitled “Math.” Suffice to say, the Wilpons, starry-eyed at their Madoff investment returns running between 12-18 percent per annum, figgered that investing the $5.9 million for ten years would get them a jump on the Bonilla payments so that the deal would pay for itself and more. They paid Bonilla 8%, they got, conservatively they felt, 12% return from the Madoffs, and Bob’s your uncle. Setting aside issues like compounding terms, taxes, etc to make it simple, after ten years they would have $18 million in the kitty, while Bonilla’s bill would only have popped to $12 million. That first year of payments in 2011, the Mets are still accruing $2.1 million a year in interest as the 25 years of $1.19 million start to Bonilla. Then that game plays out for 25 years and, let’s not kid ourselves, Fred will be dead and it would probably be dumped on a future owner anyway. With that 12 percent being the bottom of the returns Madoff was giving them, well….it made great financial sense. Returns suspiciously and wildly above market rates will give you fabulous opportunities. Unbelievable ones, actually, and we all know how that turned out.

Don’t believe me, and I’m sure this puts my figures sideways in some ways, but here is some backup from Business Insider strictly on the financial side explaining why it’s actually a smart deal.

Business Insider: the Mets have to pay a player who retired in 2001 $1.2 million today — here’s why it’s actually a smart deal.

Now let’s discuss the Baseball Side.

The Baseball Side

The baseball situation in 2000. With money freed up for 2000, Phillips sprung or perhaps sprang into action, acquiring 1999 Cy Young runner up Mike Hampton and solid corner bat Derek Bell from the Astros on December 23, 1999. We sent three players back, at the end we took on more than Bonilla’s contract straight up, but……

The Hampton/Bell trade does not happen without the Bonilla buyout. Period. So what were the ramifications? In addition to wringing the last baseball out of Bell, who chipped in 1.7 WAR, Hampton was worth 4.7 WAR to the NL pennant winner Mets in 2000, and was the MVP of the NLCS, winning two starts and giving up zero runs in 16 innings. Without Hampton we don’t get to the 2000 Subway Series. Indisputable fact.

Some would argue the revenue burst from the explosion of baseball interest in New York from the Subway Series alone would cover those far off Bonilla payments. Sure. I’ll own that idea. The Mets as a franchise swelled their chest out to equals with their New
York market rivals. Their attendance rose to a decade high number, and I’m sure their gear and other revenue popped….not finding those numbers, but I think that can be assumed by reasonable people.

But wait, there’s more! After 2000, we let Hampton walk to Colorado (he cited the school system) and got two FA compensation picks, number 18 and number 38 overall in the June 2001 draft. As the Mets first rounder had been surrendered to the As for signing Kevin Appier, these were bigly important.

With number 18 we draft Aaron Heilman. He was a solid grinder for us over six seasons, giving us a back of the rotation starter/swingman at a reasonable price, appearing in 305 games and accumulating 3.2 WAR at a cost of a few million over his six major league seasons. When we returned to the playoffs and won the East in 2006, Heilman appeared in 74 games, leading the team, and pitched to a 3.62 ERA, besting most of our starters. Definitely part of the Bonilla equation and definitely an added asset.
So maybe the World Series pop and the value of Heilman was enough to pay for the Bonilla deal….but wait! There’s more!

With the other pick secured in letting Hampton go, number 38, the Mets……on the clock…. pick.. ..wait for it…..David Wright, the best position player in Mets history!! Starting in 2004 alone, over a 4-year period Wright produces more than 20 WAR for less than $7 mil, keeping the franchise afloat despite a trough in the team’s performance. I don’t think I need to trot out Wright’s career numbers, but start counting Wright jerseys and you’ll see.

Setting aside Heilman, the 2000 playoffs/Subway Series and the star impact of Wright rank as two of the top revenue generators in Mets history. Put a number on it. $100 million? 50 million billion? $1.19 million from 2010 to 2035?

This isn’t fanciful conjecture, these are direct line consequences of deferring Bonilla’s $5.9 mil in the tight budget Mets of 1999-2000.

With Wilpons, dollars are illusory, they clear salary to make moves, it is on the family crest. Were they stupid? Well, who is paying Bonilla now? It ain’t the Wilpons. Ya think they were worried about a million bucks a year 30 years from now? That was the next owner’s problem. And this one, Mr. Cohen, couldn’t care less.

Where was I? Oh. Yes, I make the Bonilla deal.

* * * * * * *

This MMO Fan Shot was written by community member, Greg Jones. If you have something you’d like to say about the New York Mets, send your fan shot to [email protected].