No, but he long ago qualified for the pension, it just isn't much of one. AAA pay doesn't have to suck. Minimum is now $1,225/week + housing + meals + per diem. And big Jon could easily getting paid double that salary or more.
He won’t be able to collect anything until he’s at least 45, but if he waits until 62, even with just the 2 years of MLB service time he already has, he should be getting around $50,000/year from the pension; that combined with SSI should set him up to be just fine for a middle class lifestyle in standard retirement years even if he hasn’t saved a penny from his career earnings. And yeah I would imagine he is making more than the standard AAA salary now. Of course he’s 30 years away from retirement age so hopefully he saved a big portion of that extension money. I just read up on it and players are eligible for the pension after just 43 days of MLB service time. That minimum currently pays out ~$7k/yr.
How much sweeter it is to play baseball than football. I have a client that spent 12 years in the NFL, and his pension is $4K/month. I guess the good news is he at least got SSDI thanks to what the sport did to his brain. Always good to know taxpayers help supplement the NFL beyond just tax-exemption and stadium costs.
i’m proud of the dude, his background / working to overcome adversity, and his willingness… I’d rather him play for my ball-club / home-team than anyone else's… I’ve always thought he would somehow/someway be a contributor in a playoff/world series. Really hope he earns his ring this year bc IMHO, he deserves to be a champ. A LOT of kids could learn a few things from JS should he ever choose to go *that* route (community, philanthropic outreach)…
