Buck Compton said:
In a purely numbers sense, the deal isn't as extreme for either party, especially considering the bull market we've seen.
That being said, the psychological part of the deak for Bonby has to be fantastic. Every year he just gets a nice, cool seven figure check. And on the opposite side, whoever writes those checks probably wasn't around when it happened and probably curses to himself as he signs.
It's a fairly common practice in sports. Other teams pay or will pay guys more money that what Bonilla gets. What makes the Mets situation notable are two things: Bobby's mediocre at best tenure with the team, and getting "caught up" with Bernie Madoff.
I put it in quotes because the Mets actually made money while invested in Madoff's scheme; even after it collapsed, they were poised to come out ahead. Unfortunately, all of the other investors sued them to recoup their losses. It was a pretty raw deal, but Madoff was broke and in jail, and so the Mets became the biggest target for the legal feeding frenzy. And, of course, after getting fleeced in court, the Mets are still on the hook to pay Bobby.