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Baseball player Bobby Bonilla retired in 2001. Why is he still getting more than $1M per year from the Mets?

WBUR | By Here & Now Newsroom

Published July 1, 2026 at 11:07 AM CDT

New York Mets Bobby Bonilla busts out of his hitting slump with this swing, to give him a grand slam against the San Francisco Giants in the second inning, June 1, 1992 at New York's Shea Stadium. (Osamu Honda/AP)

Every July 1, former Major League Baseball star Bobby Bonilla collects a $1.19-million check from his former team, the New York Mets. It’s more money than some of baseball’s current stars will make in a year, and Bonilla will continue getting the annual payments until 2035.

Kenny Malone, co-host of NPR’s Planet Money podcast, joins host Indira Lakshmanan to discuss one of the strangest contracts in baseball history.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

Here & Now Newsroom