Keith Hernandez has joked about his own mortality in the SNY booth, but surely, New York Mets fans can’t imagine a full 162-game slate without him on a broadcast. Hernandez isn’t in John Sterling’s age category quite yet, and we wouldn’t want to age him that quickly either. But at 70 years old, it’s worth asking how much Hernandez feels he has left in the broadcast booth.
Joel Sherman asked Hernandez just that on The Show: A NY Post baseball podcast with Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman.
“Well, I think with the new ownership, I’m very inquisitive about how this thing’s gonna turn out with the Mets,” Hernandez explained. “It’s a new era, and it’s gonna make me hang around a little bit longer. I’m doing 110 games. If I lived in the city, it’d be a piece of cake, but I got an 86-mile drive, and that’s a little rugged. But I don’t mind it; I’m not complaining. I love what I do. I love the game.”
Hernandez revealed that his contract runs out after the 2025 MLB season. So, it appears that he re-upped for two years with SNY after his contract expired following the 2022 season.
“I’ll be going on 72 (years old). Maybe I’ll cut back, I don’t know — 100 games, maybe 90 games, just to get a little more time off,” Hernandez continued. “But I do still love to travel. The season, I always loved playing on the road, and I always like as an announcer going on the road to the different ballparks and seeing the different fans. And the season goes by faster when you’re three days in and three days out. So, I don’t see in the near future — as long as I have my mental faculty — of packing it in, not for awhile.”
Mets fans can rest assured that Hernandez will be a familiar voice in the booth for at least the next two seasons.
While he contemplates a potentially reduced workload after 2025, his continued enthusiasm for the game suggests he’ll continue entertaining audiences with his colorful language and antics.
After all, as Hernandez himself said, he has no plans to “pack it in” anytime soon.
[NY Post: A NY Post baseball podcast with Joel Sherman & Jon Heyman]
