The greatest contract (or agreement) in the history of sports belongs to Bobby Bonilla.
The six-time all-star hasn’t played a Major League Baseball game since 2001, but he’ll be paid for the next thirteen years.
In 2000, the New York Mets agreed to buy out the remaining portion of Bonilla’s $5.9 million dollar contract. Instead of just paying Bonilla the $5.9 million, the Mets agreed to make annual payments of roughly $1.2 million for 25 years.
Payment number-one: July 1, 2011.
The final payment: July 1, 2035.
Amazingly, this isn’t the only deferred contract tied to the former slugger. A second deferred contract with the Mets and Baltimore Orioles pays Bonilla $500,000 a year for…you guessed it…25 years. Payments began in 2004.
It may not go down as the most lucrative contract in the history of sports, but find me an athlete getting paid over a million bucks thirty years after his final game. It’s a party of one.
Bobby freaking Bonilla.
