It’s that time of the year again, where Bobby Bonilla collects a paycheck of $1,193,248 from the New York Mets (as well as a cool $500K from the Baltimore Orioles), despite the fact that he hasn’t played a game of Major League Baseball since 2001.
As easy as it would be to simply clown on the Mets for locking themselves up into such a legendarily bad arrangement (among other things), the game has changed, and deferring money has become a pretty commonplace strategy employed by all sorts of teams who utilize it to circumvent salary constraints, avoiding the luxury tax threshold, or simply to offer up more money than should be necessary to greedy free agents.
After all, fewer things exemplify the white man’s business world than promising money so far down the line that it’s realistically possible that the people writing up the offers could actually have died of old age when it comes time for the terms of payment to come into play.
That being said, in the 2024 MLB season, there are 25 players making deferred money according to Spotrac records, from 15 different teams. This is three more players and three more teams employing the buy now-pay later method than the year before. Which also is a convenient number, because that’s basically a 25-man roster without a 26th injured reserve player.
Cumulatively, they are making $78.3M, which is a higher than the Oakland A’s (shocker) total payroll of $63.3M. The Pittsburgh Pirates and Baltimore Orioles upped their payroll this year, so they wouldn’t be outspent by squad of non-players for a second year in a row. But as far as cumulative 26-man roster values, $78.3M is high enough to eclipse literally a third of Major League Baseball, costing more than what the White Sox, Marlins, Nationals, Reds, Pirates, Rays, Indians Guardians, Rockies, Brewers and A’s are spending on their daily rosters.
The Washington Nationals once again take the crown for highest amount of deferred money at $18.5M. This is heavily weighted by the annual $15M chunks they owe SP Max Scherzer between now until 2028, so it doesn’t look like the Nats are going to be relinquishing this crown, at least until the Dodgers begin making their annual payments for Shohei Ohtani’s deferred salary.
By the way, $18.5M is more than what NL MVP Ronald Acuña, Jr. is making this year, but the Nats will be getting zero home runs and zero stolen bases for their spend.
The Nationals may be one of the most frequent users of deferred money, but they’re no longer alone in this tactic of gaming the payroll system. The Orioles, Cardinals and Brewers each had three players making deferred monies this season, and there are teams like the Phillies, Dodgers and Padres are waiting in the wings that will have their own Bonillas in the future as well.
Unsurprisingly, teams with no deferred money on the books are the Yankees, Braves, A’s and Rays; the Yankees because they never like being in debt and just pay out everyone as soon as they can, and the Braves, A’s and Rays are just a bunch of cheapskates who rarely would risk putting themselves in a position where they’d possibly owe later, with interest no less.
Anyway, let’s get back to main event of this post, the reason why this post has, I’ve decided, become an annual exercise for me, which is to construct the hypothetical roster of guys making deferred money to fill out an entire team. Much of the team is the same as it was last year, but there are a few new additions, and since the DH is now a permanent fixture in both leagues, I’ve added it as a spot in the lineup, because frankly, the quality of players making deferred money can warrant it.
| Pos. | Name | Salary | Team | Retired |
| C | NONE 😔 | |||
| 1B | Chris Davis | $9.2M | BAL | 2020 |
| 2B | Dustin Pedroia | $2M | BOS | 2019 |
| 3B | Ryan Braun | $1.8M | MIL | 2020 |
| SS | Didi Gregorius | $500K | PHI | 2020* |
| OF | Bobby Bonilla | $1.7M | NYM/BAL | 2001 |
| OF | Ken Griffey, Jr. | $3.6M | CIN | 2010** |
| OF | Matt Holliday | $1.5M | STL | 2018 |
| DH | Manny Ramirez | $2.1M | BOS | 2011 |
| SP | Zack Grienke | $12.5M | HOU | 2023* |
| SP | Adam Wainwright | $1M | STL | 2023 |
| SP | Bret Saberhagen | $250K | NYM | 2001 |
| RP | Rafael Soriano | $2M | WAS | 2015 |
| RP | Mark Melancon | $1M | SFG | 2022 |
| RP | Brad Hand | $1.5M | WAS | 2023* |
| Reserves | ||||
| INF | Vinny Castilla | $105K | COL | 2006 |
| OF | Lorenzo Cain | $1M | MIL | 2022 |
Bold names are first timers
*Not technically retired, but no longer on anyone’s roster
**Junior’s last year of deferred payment, so Lorenzo Cain might actually start next year
I didn’t have to stretch as much as I did the year prior, with only Ryan Braun’s limited experience at third really being the only stretch, but as you can see, on a paper, and assuming everyone were in their primes, this is one hell of a formidable roster. The pitching staff got some substantial upgrades this season with the additions of Zack Grienke and Adam Wainwright, as well as a solid lefty in the pen with Brad Hand.
But once again, there is no catcher for the team, which goes to show the unforgiving, unglamorous and brutal nature of being a catcher where aside from the tremendous physical demands of the position, nobody wants to pay you exorbitant amounts of money where they want to defer payment.
I didn’t dig too hard, but it doesn’t look like we’re going to see a catcher making any deferred money until 2026, when JT Realmuto will be owed deferred payment from the Phillies, but it likely wont be until 2034 when we have a true catching Bonilla, when Will Smith will begin collecting $5M annual payments from the Dodgers for the next decade.
I should also point out that the roster was constructed solely of deferred money players that are no longer active baseball players. If I took into consideration the active players that are double-dipping (or triple) and making money from their current teams on top of their deferred monies, then the roster would’ve looked very different, but I also wouldn’t be able to call them the All-Bonilla team either.
But for what it’s worth, here are the active players who are collecting deferred payments this season, in addition to what they’re making as active salaries now:
| Pos. | Name | Owed | From | Now |
| 1B | Jose Abreu | $1M | CHW | HOU |
| 2B | Kolten Wong | $2.5M | MIL | ARI-AAA |
| 3B | Nolan Arenado | $2M | STL | STL |
| 3B | Justin Turner | $2M | LAD | TOR |
| OF | Giancarlo Stanton | $3M | MIA | NYY |
| OF | Jason Heyward | $5M | CHC | LAD |
| SP | Max Scherzer | $15M | WAS | TEX |
| SP | Alex Cobb | $4.5M | BAL | SFG |
| RP | Liam Hendriks | $1.5M | CHW | BOS |
Now these guys are the true MVPs of collecting checks, as all of them are still currently playing, and are getting multiple paychecks this season, but there’s still some interesting stories here:
- Kolten Wong is currently back in the Diamondbacks minor league system making a pro-rated veteran salary (around $75K), but will still being major league money thanks to his deferred money from the Brewers
- Nolan Arenado is the only guy to be getting two paychecks from the team he’s currently on, as he is getting $2M as deferred money from the Cardinals, as well as his $24M salary, and on top of that is a $5M check from the Rockies he is still owed
- Justin Turner is also triple-dipping, as he is making $13M from the Blue Jays as well as $6.7M the Red Sox are paying for him to play against them, on top of the $2M in deferred money he is getting from the Dodgers
- But all should bow down to the king, Max Scherzer, who not only is also triple-dipping, he’s making $30.8M to not play for the Mets, $22.5M to play for the Rangers, on top of the $15M the Nats had deferred for a combined 2024 gross pay of $68M; a year after he gravy-trained his way to his second World Series ring too
All these guys need to send their agents a really good gift basket. Or Edible Arrangement. Probably both. Every single year.
So in conclusion, baseball remains a great sport, where not only can guys who aren’t active thrive and earn money competitively to players working their asses off, more and more teams are getting aboard the deferred money train, and on a long enough timeline, baseball debts will surpass and demolish student loan debts in America, and there won’t be enough money in circulation to pay doctors, educators and people who actually do meaningful things in the world.
Until next year, Bobby Bo fans!
