At Celebrity Net Worth, we’re big fans of Bobby Bonilla Day. If you are somehow unfamiliar with Bobby’s story, here’s a quick primer: Bobby Bonilla is a former baseball player who retired from the major leagues in 2001. Two years before that, he was playing with the New York Mets. Then-Mets owner Fred Wilpon wanted to invest the money remaining on Bobby Bonilla’s contract with Bernie Madoff (before Madoff was revealed as a fraud, of course).
Wilpon and Bonilla struck a deal. Bobby’s remaining $5.9 million contract would be deferred for 11 years, at which point Wilpon would pay back Bonilla the $5.9 million plus interest in equal 25-year installments. As a result, every July 1 from 2011 to 2035, Bonilla earns $1.19 million. And actually, thanks to a second deferred contract (half of another $6 million deal), Bonilla has been getting an extra $250,000 every year since 2003 and will continue to do so until that deal runs out in 2028.
So, all-in Bobby gets around $1.44 million every year on July 1st. Pretty sweet deal, right? Well, as awesome as Bobby Bonilla’s day may be (and it’s almost become a national holiday), July 1st should really be called Max Scherzer Day.
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Max Scherzer’s $15 Million Jackpot
Max Scherzer started his MLB career in 2008 with the Arizona Diamondbacks. He went to the Detroit Tigers in 2010 and the Washington Nationals in 2015.
In January 2016, Max signed a 7-year $210 million contract with the Nationals.
The first four seasons of that contract paid him as a normal contract would. In other words, he earned around $105 million pre-tax.
The second part of the contract is where it gets more interesting. Scherzer deferred his final three years of the $210 million deal in exchange for earning $15 million per year every year on July 1st, from 2022 to 2028.
By the time the last payment comes through, in 2028, Scherzer will be 44 years old and very likely retired, but he’ll still be getting $15 million to sit around and do nothing.
Before any talk of retirement happens, though, Scherzer is still playing at a high level. After the Nationals traded him to the Los Angeles Dodgers ahead of the 2021, Scherzer finished third in NL Cy Young voting. The New York Mets took notice, signing him to a massive deal in 2022. The three year, $130 million deal gave Max the largest average annual total salary for any MLB player. His average annual salary from the Mets is $43.3 million. And all the while he’ll earn an extra $15 million per year – from a divisional rival, no less!
In other words, for the 2022, 2023 and 2024 seasons, Max will technically earn $58.3 million per year in salary.
Another fun perk of his Mets contract is the right to four premium seats at every home game, an extra $500,000 in value.
Scherzer has a few seasons left before he hangs up his cleats. But it’s comforting to know he’ll still be in great financial shape even after he’s thrown his final pitch.