January 3, 2000: The Bobby Bonilla Deal

January 3, 2000, 25 years ago: There aren't too many athletes who messed a team up, left, and was allowed to return to them, and ended up messing them up again. Bobby Bonilla is one of them.

In North American sports, July 1 means two things. One is Canada Day, the anniversary of Canadian independence, which means that Canada's one remaining team in Major League Baseball, the Toronto Blue Jays, not only plays an afternoon game at home, but, despite actually having "Blue" in their name, will wear red jerseys. The other is Bobby Bonilla Day.

Roberto Martin Antonio Bonilla was born on February 23, 1963 in The Bronx. Despite growing up there, in the home Borough of the New York Yankees, Bonilla was a New York Mets fan growing up, and became a star on the Pittsburgh Pirates' early 1990s near-dynasty, helping them to the 1990 and 1991 National League Eastern Division titles, and getting to Game 7 of the NLCS in '91. (They did it again without him in '92.)

He was about to turn 29 years old, and was one of the best players in baseball: An All-Star the last 4 seasons, top 3 in the NL Most Valuable Player voting the last 2 seasons, coming off a career-high .302 batting average and an NL-leading 44 doubles, and over the last 4 seasons had averaged 38 doubles, 24 home runs, 103 RBIs, and an OPS+ of 142. And he'd shown no behavioral issues that anyone knew of.

On December 2, 1991, the Mets threw money at him, and he took the deal. It was a disaster, as his hitting stats went way down, and the team had its 1st non-contending season in 9 years. The Mets had an even worse season in 1993, full of acts of carelessness that got people hurt, and, in 2 separate incidents, Bonilla threatened local reporters. 

On April 10, 1993, Bob Klapisch, then the Mets beat writer for the New York Daily News, and the author of The Worst Team Money Could Buy, a book about the previous Met season, tried to interview Bonilla in the Met locker room. Somebody grabbed a video camera, and showed Bonilla not merely taking exception to what Klapisch wrote, but telling him, "Make your move, 'cause I'll hurt you" and "I'll show you The Bronx." Instead of assaulting Klapisch, who stood his ground, Bonilla assaulted a microphone that was being held out, and walked away.

On August 11, 1994, the day before the Strike of '94 began, Bonilla tried to do the same thing to Art McFarland of WABC-Channel 7's Eyewitness News: Not only did he repeat the "Make your move" line, he said, "I'll shove that mike as far up your ass as I can stick it." McFarland, an older black man, wasn't having it: He not only stood his ground, but called Bonilla out, saying, "I'm a little more grown up than that."

The Mets finally traded him on July 28, 1995, to the Baltimore Orioles, along with a minor-league player named Jimmy Williams, for Damon Buford and Alex Ochoa. Neither Buford nor Ochoa did much for the Mets, and Williams never made the majors. A bad trade? Not really: Call it "addition by subtraction."

Bonilla helped the O's reach the Playoffs in 1996. Of course, it helped that he was a lefthanded hitter, now hitting toward the short right-field fence at Camden Yards, instead of in a pitcher's park like Shea Stadium.

But it turned out that nobody could stand Bonilla. After the 1996 season, the Orioles, who came within 3 wins of an American League Pennant, didn't lift a finger to sign him to a new deal. The Florida Marlins signed him, going all out to win the 1997 World Series, knowing that they would be broken up to save money afterward, leading to the title of Dave Rosenbaum's book about the '97 Marlins: If They Don't Win It's a Shame. They did win the Series.

On May 14, 1998, as part of their "fire sale," the Marlins sent 5 players, including Bonilla and Gary Sheffield, to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Mike Piazza and Todd Zeile. This made it possible for the Mets to get Piazza and Zeile shortly thereafter.

After the 1998 season, the Mets sent relief pitcher Mel Rojas to the Dodgers to reacquire Bonilla. Getting rid of Rojas was a plus, but Bonilla was 36 and done. Although they made the Playoffs in 1999, Bonilla had almost nothing to do with it, making just 141 plate appearances and batting .160 with 4 homers and 18 RBIs.

They wanted to release him, but they still owed him $5.9 million. His agent, Dennis Gilbert, offered the Mets a deal: He would defer payment for 10 years, and the Mets would pay him $1.19 million every year from 2011 to 2035 -- or, if he died before 2035, they would pay that sum to his heirs. On January 3, 2000, the Mets took the deal.

Bonilla played 2000 with the Atlanta Braves and 2001 with the St. Louis Cardinals, and retired -- with respectable career stats of a .279 average, a 124 OPS+, 2,010 hits, 287 home runs and 1,173 RBIs.

Because of the Wilpons' financial woes, there were seasons when Bonilla was the Mets' 3rd-highest-paid player, meaning they were paying him more to not play for them than they were paying each of 23 players to actually play for them.

And the team's 2020 purchase from the Wilpons by Steve Cohen, allegedly the richest team owner in baseball, has no effect at all on the Bonilla deal: It's an annuity, locked in, meaning that Cohen cannot, for either financial or public relations considerations, simply pay the whole damn thing off at once: Every year, until July 1, 2035, either Bonilla or his heirs is going to get that payment.

By which point, if he's still alive, he will be 72 years old, he will have been retired for 34 years, and the Mets will have paid him $29.8 million to not play for them.

When the Mets closed Shea Stadium in 2008, and when they opened Citi Field the next season, Bonilla was not among the former Met players invited to either ceremony. After all, as a Met, he was neither a great player nor a good person.