Bobby Bonilla Day 2026: The Mets Cut Another $1.19 Million Check to a 63-Year-Old Bobby Bo
Happy Bobby Bonilla Day.
The New York Mets cut a check for $1,193,248.20 to Bobby Bonilla on Tuesday. The 63-year-old former outfielder has now collected on 16 of the 25 annual payments the Mets agreed to make him back in 2000. He has nine more coming through 2035.
The story is one of baseball’s most famous financial curiosities. The Mets released Bonilla in 2000 rather than pay him the $5.9 million he was owed for the 2000 season. Instead of a lump sum, his agent negotiated a deferred payment plan at 8 percent annual interest, beginning in 2011 and running through 2035. The Mets, then owned by Fred Wilpon, agreed to it because they believed their money manager, Bernie Madoff, would earn more than 8 percent on the money they were holding onto.
Madoff, of course, was running a Ponzi scheme. By the time it collapsed in 2008, the Mets had already committed to the payment structure. So Bonilla gets his money every July 1 for 25 years, and the Mets get reminded of a mistake every single summer.
The check is more than a joke now. It is a piece of internet culture. Sports Twitter counts down to July 1 every year. Bobby Bonilla Day has its own Wikipedia page. There are memes. There are t-shirts. There are Bobby Bonilla-themed segments on national sports shows.
Bonilla himself has handled it gracefully. He is a good sport about the attention. He has done interviews joking about the annual paycheck and his role in baseball finance history. The check is not the biggest thing in his life, but it is the one that keeps his name in the headlines every summer.
The Mets, notably, are not the only team paying deferred money to a retired player. There are actually multiple similar arrangements around the league, including one for Ken Griffey Jr. from the Cincinnati Reds and Bruce Sutter from the Atlanta Braves. Bonilla just happens to have the most famous one because of the Madoff angle and the New York media coverage.
Steve Cohen owns the Mets now. He has famously said he does not mind paying Bonilla every year because it costs almost nothing to a team with the Mets’ revenue. Cohen has more pressing financial concerns, like a bloated roster that is playing badly and a farm system that is only beginning to recover from years of mismanagement.
The team’s recent slump makes Bobby Bonilla Day extra painful this year. The Mets have lost nine of their last ten games. Marcus Semien is on the injured list. Juan Soto is playing shaky defense. The vibes are bad. And on July 1, a 63-year-old retired outfielder gets a bigger paycheck than most of the middle relievers.
Bonilla, for his part, will spend the money however he pleases. He earned it, whether the Mets like it or not. And nine more Julys will follow this one before the arrangement is finally done.
Only in New York. Only for Bobby Bo.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
