Marrero got a $2.05 million signing bonus from the club — just a bit more than manager Bobby Valentine remembers getting when he was picked up by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1968.
"You know, when I was the No. 1 draft choice, I signed for $65,000 and a million dollars of good advice from [general manager] Al Campanis — as he told me at the time," Valentine said Wednesday when asked if he had given Marrero any words of wisdom when meeting him.
Valentine acknowledged that 65 grand was a lot in those days.
"It was more than twice as much as my dad paid for his house," he said. "It was a lot of money."
But Valentine quickly lost most of his newfound dough — by trying to invest wisely, of all things.
"Half of it was in mutual funds — the safest thing in the world at the time," he said.
Another $3,000 went to every young man's dream: a brand-new Camaro.
Valentine didn't appear to regret that choice more than four decades later.
