During a recent New York Mets broadcast, analyst Keith Hernandez revealed his contract with cable network SNY ended at the end of the regular season. WFAN morning hosts Boomer Esiason and Gregg Giannotti said the network needs to do everything it can to re-sign Hernandez.
“I guess they brought up the fact that his contract is up at the end of the year,” Giannotti said. “They were talking about it on the broadcast. It’s over now! You gotta get him sowed up. If he wants to continue doing this, you can’t let a guy like that — who is as iconic as him both on the field and in the booth — go into a contract year and let it expire like this! They retired his number this year!”
“Just remember, you have to wonder about what each side wants,” Esiason countered. “Maybe Keith wants to cut back on some games but wants to be paid for more games. More money per game, I should say. You just never know what the differences may be.”
“They got plenty of money to pay Keith Hernandez,” Giannotti replied. “They are lauded as the best booth in baseball. He’s using that leverage. They got plenty of money for him.”
“They’re only paying Sal (Licata) and (Marc) Malusis like $100, so there’s plenty of money over there,” Esiason joked. “They’re tight over there at SNY. Tight, tight, tight. There’s only two hours that Carton & Roberts are on over. Whatever it takes.”
Giannotti, after saying “you pay what you gotta pay” to Hernandez added that former WFAN host Joe Benigno once told him SNY made WFAN “look like the Yankees” in terms of salary. Esiason wondered if Hernandez might be at the point in his life where only broadcasting home games and not traveling with the club on the road may interest him.
