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Bobby Bonilla: How Dodgers trade led to 25-year payday

Bobby Bonilla, Los Angeles Dodgers (Vincent Laforet /Allsport)

On Bobby Bonilla Day, remembering the Dodgers trade that sent him back to New York.

Bobby Bonilla makes the headlines every July 1 for a peculiar reason: the former slugger is still getting paid by the New York Mets for a contract they deferred back in 2000.

While it sounds ridiculous – the Mets are paying Bobby Bonilla twenty years after he left the team? – there was a business reason for the Mets’ decision.

Why did the Mets defer Bobby Bonilla’s contract?