Sep 4, 2024; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; An injured Kansas City Royals first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino (9) talks with team mates against the Cleveland Guardians in the eighth inning at Kauffman Stadium. Credit: Denny Medley-Imagn Images
By Sam Neumann on

Vinnie Pasquantino might be hitting just .222 in spring training, but when it comes to NFL scoops, he’s batting 1.000.

If you’re not following the Kansas City Royals first baseman on social media, you’re missing out — not just because he’s entertaining, but because he’s also a tortured New York Jets fan like myself. Pasquantino, a Richmond, Virginia native, didn’t inherit his Jets fandom. He chose it. Why? Because a guy named Vinny Testaverde once suited up in green and white, and that was good enough for him.

When the Royals travel to George Steinbrenner Field later this year and play the Tampa Bay Rays, will Vinnie and Vinny go out to dinner with one another? We’ll save that joke for Mike Francesa callers, but Pasquantino knows a thing or two about Jets quarterbacks.

Including their newly minted one.

Which brings us to Monday morning, when Pasquantino — fresh off grabbing a bat in Surprise, Arizona — decided to break some news on X. As the Elon Musk-owned social media site was experiencing outages and sending reporters scrambling to Threads and Bluesky, Pasquantino stuck around and casually announced that Justin Fields would be signing with the New York Jets on a two year, $35 million deal.

A joke? A wild guess? An actual scoop? Didn’t matter. Two hours later, Fields was a Jet.

And the Royals first baseman called his shot.

Pasquantino also nearly nailed the details. He reported a two-year, $35 million deal. The actual contract is two years, $40 million, with $30 million guaranteed.

Not too bad for a guy who usually deals in exit velocities, not salary cap figures.

He didn’t demand credit, even if Adam Schein ensured he got it.

But he did make one request.

From now on, he’d like to be known as “ViNFL Insider.”

Honestly, after calling his shot like that, who’s going to argue?

About Sam Neumann

Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.

View all posts by Sam Neumann