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The problem with this, of course, is that Bobby Bonilla turns 50 on Saturday and retired after the 2001 season. He hasn’t actually been on the Mets roster since 1999. The reason why his name keeps coming up is because of a highly-publicized contract buyout from 2000.

The Mets didn’t want Bonilla on their team for the 2000 season. With a $5,900,000 salary and a 37th birthday in February, he carried little trade value (never mind the fact that Bonilla had been worth -1.5 fWAR the previous 2 seasons, despite only appearing in a total of 160 games). The Wilpons wanted Bonilla off the roster, and wanted additional financial flexibility in the interim. So they came to an agreement on his buyout:

[S]tarting on July 1, 2011, Bobby Bonilla will remain on the franchise’s payroll for 25 years, collecting an annual salary of $1,193,248.20. Those are the terms the Mets agreed to Jan. 3, 2000, when they bought out the final year of Mr. Bonilla’s contract.

- There’s No Accounting for This, Wall Street Journal (July 1, 2010)

The $1.19M figure was agreed upon was based on two tenets:

(1) Bonilla’s $5.9M salary would be deferred until the 2011 fiscal year

The Wilpons would not owe Bobby Bonilla any compensation for 11 1/2 years, and would be free to spend the money as they wish until July 2011, at which point they’re required to pay the annual installments until 2035.

(2) In compensation for this, the money would collect interest.

According to the WSJ article I quoted above, the money would collect 8% interest in the meantime (the US Prime Rate in January 2000 was 8.5% – a nominal 5.8% interest on top of 2.7% inflation).

For the sake of discussion, I’m going to propose a third tenet:

(3) The original $5.9M sum is viewed as belonging to Bonilla, which he then invested into the Mets at the agreed upon terms.

March 28, 2012; Port St Lucie, FL, USA; New York Mets co owner Fred Wilpon in the stands during a spring training game against the Washington Nationals at Digital Domain Park. Mandatory Credit: Brad Barr-USA TODAY Sports

If you wish, you can argue that it was, in effect, the Wilpons borrowing the money from Bonilla, but either way it’s the same. What I’m establishing is that the $5.9M is, in effect, a sunk cost to Fred Wilpon; that money ends up in Bonilla’s pockets no matter the agreement. So what we’re going to do is treat the $5.9M as in a vacuum – as a deposit into an interest bearing account that collects 8% interest and begins paying out in the 11th fiscal year. At the end, Bonilla will have earned a total of $29,831,205 by the year 2035. Assuming the 2.7% inflation rate at the time he signed the agreement, the total value would be worth $16,464,019 in 2000. Not only has Bonilla effectively secured his future (and his family’s) with the annuity payments, he’s nearly tripled the year-2000 value of his contract!

This should all sound familiar, because this is how banks work. When you deposit money into a savings account, for example, you’re giving your bank the freedom to use your money for ventures they see fit (lend it to others, invest it, etc.) with the caveats that (A) your money is insured if what they do with it loses money and (B) they pay you in exchange. Those payments come in the form of interest.

The key question here is how the Wilpons invested the $5.9M (given the tumult of the Madoff scandal, among other things, discussing this could fill novels, let alone this blog post). Hypothetically, if the Wilpons were to invest the money at 8%, they would break even (they would actually profit 8.4 cents).

At this point, it becomes clear why the Wilpons would be willing to make such a deal. Were they to collect zero interest (above inflation) on the $5.9M, their liability would be the difference between the total of the payments and the initial sum – $27,565,453 – which works out to $1,102,618 per year for each of the 25 years in which Bonilla will collect. Were we to assume that value as a lump sum to be paid out in year 25 (2035), it reflects as a $10,849,247 sum in year 2000 dollars.

So that’s it. In the most foolish eyes, the Wilpons made a $10.8M gamble in January 2000 (a safer bet than Jason Bay, in retrospect). Clearly it isn’t likely that the Wilpons just let the money sit under their mattress, so let’s check the investment.

First, we know that the average (mean) inflation rate since January 2000 has been 2.5065%. We also know that the mean Prime rate (which includes inflation) since the agreement has been 5.3386%. At that rate, the Wilpons would be paying $24,497,467 out-of-pocket over the lifetime of the agreement, a year-2000 cost of $9,641,745.

However, the Prime Rate, of course, corresponds to the rate offered to the lowest-risk lendees, so it’s not necessarily accurate to assume that the Wilpons only used that rate. I don’t know enough about investment returns or the like to accurately guess what they were getting. Reports have indicated that they were collecting as much as 12% from their Madoff investments; at such a rate they would have begun to guarantee a profit by 2018. Even at a more modest 9%, their profit (in year-2000 dollars) would be north of $8.3M, and the 8.5% prime rate at the time of agreement would have netted the Wilpons a $3.7M profit in year-2000 dollars.

It’s ultimately unknown what their investment returns are, and/or how much of it was lost in the Madoff scandal. But when the worst case scenario ends up in spreading what would be, at the time, a less-than-$11M loss over 35 years, it doesn’t seem like the disaster some make it out to be.

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July 20, 2012; New York, NY, USA; New York Mets batter Jason Bay (44) hits a single during the seventh inning of a game against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Citi Field. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-US PRESSWIRE

I could go on, but if you’re on this site I’d just be beating a dead horse. You know it by now, I know it by now: Jason Bay has been a complete bust for the orange and blue. He hasn’t come close to resembling the player who commanded $66 million over four seasons. This season has been terrible even by diminished expectations: while in 2010 and 2011 he had promising streaks sprinkled in through long droughts, this season the crop has completely dried up to the point that anything other than a strikeout or weak groundball is seen as a pleasant surprise.

Just how bad has Jason Bay been since he arrived in Flushing Meadows? It’s come to the point that he can now be inducted into the Hall of Horrible. The Canyon of Can’t. The Pantheon of Putridity. This season SNY and MetsBlog.com honored the Mets’ All-Time Team for its 50^th anniversary. On the flip side, it’s time to introduce a more dubious squad: the Mets’ Free Agent-Era Team of Imported Busts.

First Base: Mo Vaughn, 2002-03

The “Hit Dog” had missed the entire 2001 season before the Mets acquired him from Anaheim in late ’01. Vaughn’s first season in the Big Apple proved to be an underwhelming one: he hit just .259 with 26 HRs, 72 RBIs, and more strikeouts (145) than hits (126). After an even worse start to 2003, he ended up missing the rest of the season after playing just 27 games. He would never play baseball again, and the Mets were saddled with paying the rest of his 6-year, $80 million contract anyway. Mo took in more than $17 million in both his abbreviated final season and first year of retirement in 2004.

Pre-Mets season averages: .298 BA, 30 HR, 98 RBI, .920 OPS

Mets season averages: .249 BA, 14 HR, 44 RBI, .794 OPS

Percent changes: -16.4%, -53.3%, -55.1%, -13.7%

Second Base: Roberto Alomar, 2002-03

The future Hall-of-Famer was brought in around the same time as Vaughn and, along with him, was supposed to be the new face of a reinvigorated franchise. But 34-year-old Alomar’s age began to show the moment he arrived from Cleveland: his batting average dropped 70 points from .336 in ’01 to .266 in ’02. He also went from 20 to 11 home runs and 100 to 53 RBIs. After more of the same in 2003, the Mets shipped him off to the White Sox for next-to-nothing, ending the Alomar/Vaughn “Era” less than two years after it began. Alomar was inducted into Cooperstown in 2011 after 10 phenomenal seasons with the Blue Jays, Orioles, and Indians. His career in New York is remembered as nothing more than an unfortunate post-career stretch.

Pre-Mets season averages: .306 BA, 73 RBI, 32 SB, .833 OPS

Mets season averages: .265 BA, 38 RBI, 11 SB, .703 OPS

Percent changes: -13.4%, -47.9%, -65.6%, -15.6%

Shortstop: Kazuo Matsui, 2004-06

Apr 20, 2010; Houston, TX, USA; Houston Astros second baseman Kazuo Matsui (3) in action against the Florida Marlins in the eighth inning at Minute Maid Park. The Astros defeated the Marlins 7-5. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-US PRESSWIRE

The Mets’ answer to Ichiro Suzuki and Hideki Matsui, Kaz was brought in as the first Japanese-born infielder in MLB history. He led off his major league career with a home run, but that first game (3-3, 2 2Bs, HR, 3 RBIs) would turn out to be the high point in his New York career. Matsui hit just .272 in 114 games at shortstop 2004 and played just 87 games at second base while hitting .255 in 2005. He lost his starting job in 2006 and was traded to Colorado, who immediately sent him down to the minors, in the middle of the year. In addition to his underwhelming numbers and inflated 3-year, $20 million contract, Matsui also necessitated the ill-fated Jose Reyes at second base experiment.

Pre-Mets season averages: .309 BA, 30 2B, 68 RBI, 34 SB

Mets season averages: .256 BA, 16 2B, 25 RBI, 7 SB

Percent changes: -17.2%, -46.7%, -63.2%, -79.4%

Third Base: Bobby Bonilla, 1992-95, ’99

Okay, so he was only a third baseman part of the time. But the outfield’s crowed, so we’ll put him at the hot corner. Bonilla was imported from Pittsburgh after an MVP-caliber 1991 season with a 5-year, $29 million deal. While his power numbers were consistent and batting average not horrible, what makes Bobby-Bo a must for the Bust team is his terrible attitude. Bad work ethic, chronic complaining, and threats of violence marred his initial four seasons at Shea. An overachieving first half in 1995 allowed the Mets to ship him off to Baltimore at the trade deadline. That should’ve been the end of it, but New York brought back Bonilla for an “encore” in 1999. He hit .160 that year and missed all but 60 games. His complaining returned and he spat constantly with Bobby Valentine, but the enduring image is of him in the clubhouse playing cards with Rickey Henderson while his team lost Game 6 of the 1999 NLCS. But what makes this clown perhaps the most infamous on the All-Bust team is that the Mets will have to pay him a little over a million dollars a year for 25 years (which started last year) thanks to a buyout deal he signed in 2001. Only after the final check is sent in 2025 will the Mets finally be rid of Bobby Bonilla, and hopefully for good this time.

Pre-Mets season averages: .283 BA, 19 HR, 88 RBI, .829 OPS

Mets season averages: .270 BA, 19 HR, 49 RBI, .851 OPS

Percent changes: -4.6%, 0%, -44.3%, 2.6%

Catcher: N/A

Actually, the Mets have done a pretty good job in this department. Their biggest two acquisitions were future Hall-of-Famers, one (Gary Carter) who was a team leader and wanted to go in as a Met, the other (Mike Piazza) who will go in as a Met when he becomes eligible in 2013. Of course, we’ll be taking future references.

Outfield: George Foster, 1982-86

The original high-priced bust, Foster came to the Mets via trade from Cincinnati in 1982. The former MVP and staple on the Big Red Machine was soon upped to, at the time, the second largest contract in baseball history: 5 years, $10 million. But GM Frank Cashen’s first step towards the 1986 World Champions would turn out to be a misstep. 33-year-old Foster tailed off immediately, couldn’t handle the pressure of being a big-money man in New York City, and, as is well documented in Jeff Perlman’s The Bad Guys Won, never seemed to gel with his new teammates. His final year with the team was the most eventful for all the wrong reasons. Foster was the man behind the, um, “legendary” rap song “Get Metsmerized,” recorded one game into the 1986 season. But as tone-deaf as that business venture was, his exit from New York sounded even worse: he was released in August after accusing Davey Johnson and the organization of racism. The White Sox picked him up soon after but Foster was out of baseball a month later. Perhaps Foster’s biggest positive contribution to that legendary team was warming a seat for Lee Mazzilli; the former fan favorite took his spot on the roster almost immediately after Foster was released.

Pre-Mets season averages, 1975-81: .297 BA, 32 HR, 107 RBI, .911 OPS

Mets season averages: .252 BA, 20 HR, 72 RBI, .729 OPS

Percent changes: -15.2%, -37.5%, -32.7%, -20%

Outfield: Vince Coleman, 1991-93

The 1985 Rookie of the Year and Cardinals’ speedster came to the Mets after the 1990 season for almost $12 million over 4 years. After finishing in 2^nd in three of the four seasons following 1986, Coleman was supposed to be the sparkplug that finally got New York over the hump. How did that work out? After leading the league in stolen bases each of his first six seasons, Coleman suddenly stopped running when he got to Shea. He never played more than 100 games in any of his three seasons in Flushing, and the Mets finished 5^th in 1991 and 1992 and dead last with 103 losses in 1993. In July of that season, Coleman gave that horrid season, and his horrid tenure in New York, one more unfortunate exclamation point as he tossed a firecracker into a crowd of fans waiting for autographs outside Dodger Stadium. Several were injured, including a 2-year-old girl, and Coleman was charged with felony explosives possession on August 3. He was placed on administrative leave that day and never played another game in a Mets uniform.

Pre-Mets season averages: 146 Games, .265 BA, 92 SB

Mets season averages: 78 Games, .270 BA, 33 SB

Percent changes: -46.6%, 1.9%, -64.1%

Outfield: Jason Bay, 2010-now

One of the biggest black marks on Omar Minaya’s tenure as GM, Bay’s struggles have been well-documented by just about every Mets-related source out there, including right here on Rising Apple. It appears this latest nightmare is about to end, though: the New York Post’s Mike Puma reports that Jason has about a week to do something before he loses the bulk of his playing time to Mike Baxter. If he does lose the job, it would all but guarantee he would fall short of the plate appearances needed to trigger his optional 5^th year in 2014. But don’t be surprised if Bay gets the George Foster treatment and is out of here within a year.

Pre-Mets season averages, 2004-09: .280 BA, 30 HR, 99 RBI, .894 OPS

Mets season averages: .240 BA, 8 HR, 37 RBI, .701 OPS

Percent changes: -14.3%, -73.3%, -62.2%, -21.6%

Starting Pitcher: Oliver Perez, 2006-10

Oct 3, 2010; Flushing, NY, USA; New York Mets pitcher Oliver Perez (46) during the fourteenth inning against the Washington Nationals at Citi Field. Mandatory Credit: Anthony Gruppuso-US PRESSWIRE

The Mets got Ollie at the trade deadline in 2006. His numbers weren’t particularly great in the regular season (6.38 ERA on 7 starts), but his solid start in Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS earned him another shot in 2007. His next two seasons were decent (15 wins in ’07, 10 in ’08), but certainly not enough to merit the 3-year, $36 million deal Omar Minaya offered him before the start of 2009. We all know the story from there: the dreadful and injury-plagued ’09, the refusal to go to the minors in ’10, the fake injury Jerry Manuel had to make up to get him off the roster. Perez was released in 2011 with a trashed reputation…and $12 million more. Despite suggestions that he’s actually good now, Met fans will get a laugh as to how Ollie earned his first W since 2009: poaching it from Felix Hernandez with a blown save on Sunday afternoon.

Pre-Mets season averages: .467 WP, 4.26 ERA, 129 IP, 69 BB 143 K

Mets season averages: .500 WP, 4.71 ERA, 104 IP, 60 BB, 99 K

Percent changes: 6.6%, 9.6%, -19.4%, -13%, -30.8%

Relief Pitcher: Francisco Rodriguez, 2009-11

A year after setting a single-season saves record with the Angels, K-Rod signed with the Mets to the tune of $37 million over three years. His ERA ballooned his first season in New York and his attitude soon became a problem. In August 2010 Rodriguez was arrested for assaulting his girlfriend’s father near the Mets’ clubhouse; his suspension soon after became a moot point when it was revealed he tore his right thumb during the assault and required season-ending surgery. While definitely not the worst relief pitcher the Mets have ever brought in, his bloated contract, violent actions, and habit of giving fans cardiac arrest while he performed his tightrope routine in 9^th innings are enough to land him on this list of losers.

Pre-Mets season averages, 2003-08: 74 IP, 2.38 ERA, 35 SV, 33 BB, 96 K

Mets season averages: 56 IP, 3.05 ERA, 28 SV, 25 BB, 62 K

Percent changes: -24.3%, 22%, -20%, -24.2%, -35.4%

What an expensive and terrible team. For anyone to make that roster, they would have to be Amazin’-ly bad while simultaneously becoming Amazin’-ly rich. Unfortunately for Jason Bay, he fits both criteria and will be forever immortalized as one of the worst-ever imports for a franchise known for bringing in the wrong players at the wrong time. That is, unless the Mets manage to bring in someone who turns out to be even worse. I wouldn’t put it past them.

You can follow me on Twitter @MidwesternMet and at my own Mets blog of the same name. Thanks for reading, have a nice day, and L.G.M!