Keith Hernandez revealed the details of his new SNY contract before it was even signed.<\/p>\n
The 72-year-old New York Mets analyst appeared on the First Time Listener Long Time Caller<\/a> podcast with Newsday\u2019s Laura Albanese and confirmed he\u2019s cutting his schedule from 110 games to at least 90 starting this season as part of what he expects to be a three-year deal.<\/p>\n \u201cI believe I\u2019m cutting back to 91 games from 110,\u201d Hernandez said on the podcast. \u201cIt\u2019ll be \u2014 if it\u2019s signed \u2014 it\u2019ll hopefully be a three-year deal. I\u2019m not supposed to talk about this, but it\u2019ll be cut back to 90, and you know, we\u2019re not getting any younger up there in the booth. They\u2019ve got to start looking around for people that are going to have to fill our shoes when the time comes.\u201d<\/p>\n Newsday\u2019s Anthony Rieber reported Tuesday<\/a> that Hernandez has since reached a contract agreement with SNY<\/a>, finalizing the reduced schedule and making the three-year extension official. The deal ensures Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez, and Ron Darling will work their 21st consecutive season together, maintaining what\u2019s been regarded as the best broadcast booth in baseball.<\/p>\n The reduced workload marks the first time Hernandez has officially scaled back his schedule since joining SNY when the network launched in 2006. He\u2019s been working 110 games per season for years, handling the bulk of the regular season schedule alongside Cohen and Darling. Cutting to 91 games means Hernandez will scale back by \u00a0roughly 20 games, opening up more opportunities for SNY to get Daniel Murphy reps in the booth as Hernandez\u2019s eventual successor.<\/p>\n Hernandez has been open<\/a> about the physical toll of maintaining his current schedule. The 86-mile drive from his Sag Harbor home to Citi Field has worn on him as he\u2019s gotten older.<\/p>\n The reduced schedule aligns with what Hernandez told the New York Post last year about following Ralph Kiner\u2019s blueprint<\/a>. Kiner broadcast Mets games for 45 years and gradually scaled back his workload in his final seasons, allowing the team to transition new voices into the booth.<\/p>\n SNY has been working on that transition. The network expanded Murphy\u2019s role last season<\/a>, getting him more reps in the booth during games Hernandez was \u2014 and wasn\u2019t \u2014 calling. He\u2019s the obvious choice<\/a> to eventually take over Hernandez\u2019s spot, but that day isn\u2019t coming anytime soon. Hernandez just signed for three more years, and even at 91 games per season, he\u2019ll still be the primary analyst for the majority of Mets telecasts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Keith Hernandez revealed the details of his new SNY contract before it was even signed. The 72-year-old New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553181,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2396],"tags":[5,1489,3358,2544,101,4,1690,61,2548,4203,5066,4798],"class_list":["post-553180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-mets","tag-baseball","tag-daniel-murphy","tag-gary-cohen","tag-keith-hernandez","tag-mets","tag-mlb","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-mets","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkmets","tag-ron-darling","tag-sny"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116009321597578141","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}