Juan Soto’s return to Yankee Stadium has been the biggest storyline in baseball this weekend. So naturally, he was a prime candidate to be the player involved in the weekly in-game interview on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball. But after he was initially named the in-game interviewee, the network abruptly decided to pivot.
Sunday Night Baseball reporter Buster Olney announced in a post on X Sunday morning that Soto would be the mic’d up player, detailing how the network planned to ask Soto about the excellent season that his former teammate, Aaron Judge, is currently having.
“On Sunday Night Baseball, we’ve got the Mets and Yankees, Juan Soto wearing the mic, and we’ll ask him about Aaron Judge’s season,” wrote Olney. “Per @EliasSports: Judge reached base for the 100th time this season on Friday night. He did so in the team’s 44th game of the season. That’s the fewest team games for a player to reach base 100 times in a season since 2002, when Barry Bonds also made it to 100 times on base in the Giants’ 44th game. The only other Yankees to reach base 100 times within the team’s first 44 games of a season were Mickey Mantle in 1956 (he won the triple crown that year), along with Babe Ruth in 1930 and 1923.”
On Sunday Night Baseball, we’ve got the Mets and Yankees, Juan Soto wearing the mic, and we’ll ask him about Aaron Judge’s season. Per @EliasSports: Judge reached base for the 100th time this season on Friday night. He did so in the team’s 44th game of the season. That’s the…
— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) May 18, 2025
As you may have expected, Mets fans weren’t exactly thrilled for this portion of Sunday Night Baseball, with many declaring that they will either be tuning into the radio broadcast or muting the audio entirely during Soto’s interview.
A reminder to Mets fans: Don’t forget to sync the audio for the radio broadcast so you can listen to Howie and Keith instead of Buster on his knees asking Soto about another player that’s not on his team. Also, you can avoid the absolutely terrible ESPN broadcast all together…
— Ricky_Rula 🇵🇷 (@RickySalsa787) May 18, 2025
Reason to mute ESPN as usual.
— Jed Weisberger 🔯 (@Zalman888) May 18, 2025
Wait. You’re going to mic up Juan Soto…to ask him about…Aaron Judge. How about asking him about Pete, Lindor, or life on his new team? This is wildly frustrating and exactly why fans are glad baseball is leaving ESPN
— Josh Consalvo (@joshconsalvo) May 18, 2025
It’s honestly amazing that you decided to have Soto mic up and the first thing you are going to ask is about an opposing player. Wow you guys are so good at your job.
— Alec Staneck (@astaneck12) May 18, 2025
Fortunately for Mets fans, a last-minute change from ESPN will make it so they won’t have to tune out Soto’s in-game interview after all. In a post on X, Andrew Marchand of The Athletic reported that ESPN will instead be interviewing Brandon Nimmo during Sunday’s game.
Pinch hitter: Brandon Nimmo will now be mic’d up instead of Soto. https://t.co/iNJw9G8Pc4
— Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) May 18, 2025
Marchand didn’t detail any specific reason for this abrupt change, just hours before the broadcast. Maybe the outrage of Mets fans on social media played into this decision. But on paper, the most likely reason for the change is that Soto simply may not have been all that eager to discuss his former teammate.
After all, Soto did leave the Yankees for a reason. Not to mention the fact that the Mets’ success as a team this season didn’t even appear to be a topic of conversation, according to Olney.
Whatever the reason may be, it’s not exactly the best look for ESPN to have players abruptly canceling in-game interviews. Even if Soto may be justified in doing so based on the network’s plan to utilize him to further discuss an opposing player…
