(PHOTO: Susan Ragan/AP Photo)
Due to boring procedural circumstances likely to interest only tax attorneys, the Internal Revenue Service will auction off the right to collect payments the New York Mets owe retired slugger Darryl Strawberry after a deferred compensation arrangement he signed with the team in 1985.
Essentially, the Mets and Strawberry agreed to defer part of the outfielder’s 1990 salary, but the IRS now has the right to sell his remaining paychecks because Strawberry still has unsettled tax debts.
The total value of the contract, which covered his 1985 through 1990 seasons, was $7.1 million, but nearly 40 percent of his $1.8 million team option in 1990 ($700,000) was deferred and put into an annuity with a 5.1 percent annual interest rate.
On Jan. 20, the IRS will auction off the right to collect what will amount to roughly $1.28 million paid by Sterling Mets L.P., parent company of the Mets, in 223 monthly installments, assuming a realistic sale close date of May 1. As this sale is required through the court system, the winning bid, which cannot be less than $550,000, has to be approved by a judge before the buyer starts collecting.
Just imagine the joy in your loved one’s eyes when he or she tears the wrapping off the greatest holiday gift of all: The $1.28 million left on Darryl Strawberry’s contract with the Mets, to be paid out in 223 monthly installments of nearly six grand apiece over the next couple of decades (hint, hint).
