Big league baseball players increased their potential war chest of cash and investments ahead of collective bargaining to $415 million heading into 2026, up from $284 million at the start of 2025, according to the union’s annual federal disclosure form filed.

Bonilla isn’t alone in 2023 when it comes to former Major League Baseball players who are now out of the league, but are collecting big paychecks because of deferred payments.

The New York Mets under new owner Steven Cohen are embracing Bobby Bonilla Day, an annual remembrance of a famously unsuccessful contract.

Bobby Bonilla is a retired MLB player who last took the field in 2001, but, 20 years later, is still getting paid $1.2 million a year by the New York Mets. In fact, he'll get paid $1,193,248.20 a year every year until 2035, when Bonilla is 72 entire years old. At that point, the final sum will be $29.8 million paid for a sport Bonilla will not have played professionally for 34 years. In 1999, the New York Mets wanted to get rid of Bonilla, but still owed him almost $6 million on his contract. Obviously, we all know how the Madoff scheme turned out, so unfortunately for the Mets, they never saw that return.