When $252 Million Isn't Enough: Murray Chass has another great article over at the NY Times. In this piece, he comments on the absurd practice of giving bonuses to players making $20 million a year for accomplishments such as making an All-Star team or finishing in the top 10 in the MVP voting.
- Today general managers routinely include contract provisions for award bonuses - star packages, they're called - not as inducements but as a way of placating star players for whom their enormous salaries and signing bonuses aren't enough.
Just last week, Barry Bonds and Vladimir Guerrero each gained a $500,000 bonus for winning his league's Most Valuable Player award. Bonds's salary and prorated share of his signing bonus totaled $18 million this year, Guerrero's $11 million.
A year ago, Alex Rodriguez, the man with the $252 million contract, was the A.L. M.V.P. and earned a $500,000 bonus on top of his $22 million guaranteed income for the year.
It's one thing for a losing pitcher to win a $10,000 bonus on top of his $175,000 salary; it's quite another for players of the magnitude and salaries of Bonds and Rodriguez to win bonuses of any amount.
Are they not being paid millions in salaries for performing like most valuable players, whether or not they win the award?
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