[Updated July 1, 2018.]
Today, the New York Mets will pay Bobby Bonilla another installment of $1,193,248.20.
Every July 1, from 2011 to 2035, the Mets make the payment as part of deferring the $5.9 million the Mets owed him from the 2000 season, a year in which he didn't play for the team, because they released him in January. As noted last year, Bonilla's agent worked out a deal that deferred payment (with an 8 percent annual interest rate).
With eight payments now in, Bonilla has now collected $9,545,986.60. There are 18 more payments due to Bonilla through 2035. When all the payments are made, Bonilla will have turned that $5.9 million into $29.8 million.
But that's not all.
Bonilla also has deferred money that is being paid by the Mets and the Baltimore Orioles, who took Bonilla for the final year and a half (1995 and 1996) of his first Mets contract, a five-year deal signed in December 1991 for $29 million.
The two teams split a $12.5 million payment which comes in 25 installments. That deal started in 2004, so Bonilla has received 14 payments worth a total of $7 million, and he will receive another $5.5 million through 2028.
So to recap, Bonilla has already received $15.3 million in deferred money. Over the next 18 years, he has another $27 million to go.
All this looks even better from his home in Sarasota, Florida, where there's no state income tax.