Former Pirates All-Star Fleeces Mets Again

PITTSBURGH — A former Pittsburgh Pirates All-Star, who hasn't played in the MLB in 24 years, still making money each year from one team.

Former Pirates outfielder Bobby Bonilla received $1.2 million from the New York Mets on July 1, has done so each year since 2011 and will continue doing so through 2035.

The Mets didn't give Bonilla a 25-year, $30 million contract in 2011, but rather, chose a different strategy for the star player in the latter stages of his career.

Bonilla signed a four-year, $23.3 million contract with the Florida Marlins in 1997 and he won the World Series with the team that season under former Pirates manager Jim Leyland.

The Marlins then traded Bonilla away that offseason in an infamous rebuilding strategy, that saw them send away their best players right after winning it all.

They sent Bonilla to the Los Angeles Dodgers and he came back to the Mets for his second tenure, after a four-year stay from 1992-95, with two All-Star appearances.

Bonilla hit .160 with the Mets in 1999 and they would release him, but still owed him around $5.9 million on his contract.

When settling how the Mets would pay the rest of the contract, Bonilla and his agent proposed that he would defer payments for a decade until 2011, and earn an annual paycheck around $1.19 million from then until 2035, paying him about $29.8 million.

Then Mets owner Jeff Wilpon decided this was a great idea, as they believed they would make money through investments with Bernie Madoff.

Those investments were eventually a Ponzi scheme, where the originator promises high returns on investments, but instead of making actual money, it just moves around money brought in from newer investors over time.

Bonilla and his agent made one of the best deals in MLB history, as he continues making money decades after last playing a game.

He starred for the Pirates, who signed him in the early 1980s, after scout Syd Thrift found him at a baseball camp in Europe.

The Chicago White Sox landed Bonilla in the Rule 5 Draft and he played for the team in the 1986 season, before returning to the Pirates that offseason in exchange for pitcher José DeLeón.

Bonilla initially started at third base, but after committing 67 errors over the 1987 and 1988 seasons, Leyland moved him to right field.

He would establish a great partnership with left fielder Barry Bonds and center fielder Andy Van Slyke over the next few years, becoming one of, if not the, best outfields in the MLB.

Bonilla earned four consecutive All-Star nods, 1988-91 and three Silver Slugger Awards with the Pirates, 1988, 1990-91.

He slashed .284/.357/.481 for an OPS of .838 in 843 games over six seasons in Pittsburgh 1986-91, with 868 hits, 191 doubles, 35 triples, 114 home runs, 500 RBIs and 364 walks to 448 strikeouts.