Every year on July 1, baseball fans from the snarkiest corners of internet emerge to commemorate a day that draws groans from the greater Queens area: Bobby Bonilla Day.
It’s that special day, of course, when former All-Star third baseman Bobby Bonilla—who last appeared in an MLB game in 2001—receives $1.19 million from the Mets as part of his contract with the team that guaranteed him a seven-figure payday each year from ’11 to ’35. It’s a contractual provision known as deferred money, and even though the tactic can be beneficial to teams for accounting purposes, they without fail make them the butt of many jokes in the public arena.
But while Bonilla and the Mets are the poster children for deferred contracts, the practice is more common than perhaps the average fan thinks. Below are a few notable names who are set to get paid in 2023 by teams they no longer play for—some of whom haven’t set foot on a baseball diamond in a long, long time.
