ESPN's Jessica Mendoza hired by Mets, but will continue on 'Sunday Night Baseball'
The New York Mets are loading up on broadcasters, but not for their radio or TV booth. Instead, their new hires are headed for the front office.
Just a day after hiring former New York Yankees broadcaster Al Leiter in a front office role, the Mets announced on Tuesday that Jessica Mendoza, one of ESPN’s on-air analysts for “Sunday Night Baseball,” has been hired as a baseball operations advisor. According to the Mets, her job will focus on player evaluation, roster construction, technological advancement, and health and performance. Mendoza will not be leaving ESPN and will continue to work for as an analyst for “Sunday Night Baseball.”
Mendoza, who has been at the “Sunday Night Baseball microphone since 2016, is a former world-class softball player. She played for Stanford in college (where she still holds several career records despite graduating in 2002), and she represented the United States in the 2004 and 2008 Olympics with the women’s national softball team, winning a gold and a silver medal. She’s a three-time World Cup champion, and a two-time Pan American gold medalist.
Conflict of interest?
Mendoza will be working for the Mets while simultaneously working as a general baseball analyst for ESPN, which brings up an important question: how can she do both at the same time? With Mendoza being paid by the Mets, doesn’t that put into question any public analysis she gives on the Mets? Or on other teams in the National League East? It’s a conflict of interest, given that she’s paid by the Mets.
ESPN hasn’t answered the “how,” but its past analyst hires reveal that this is a trend. Leiter will work for the Mets while continuing to be an analyst on MLB Network. David Ross was hired as a special assistant with the Chicago Cubs in January 2017, and ESPN hired him as a baseball analyst just over two weeks later.
And of course there’s Alex Rodriguez, Mendoza’s “Sunday Night Baseball” colleague. ESPN announced that A-Rod would join the “Sunday Night Baseball” broadcast booth in January 2018, and a month later the Yankees brought him on as a special assistant to the GM.
Just because A-Rod did it doesn’t mean it’s right, though. Especially since “Sunday Night Baseball” will now have two analysts who work for teams they’re supposed to be discussing without bias. ESPN doesn’t seem to view its baseball analysts and broadcasters as journalists, but viewers still expect unbiased coverage — if they didn’t, fans wouldn’t yell at Joe Buck for hating their favorite team during the playoffs, and Buck doesn’t even work for a team.
On his first “Sunday Night Baseball” broadcast, Rodriguez addressed the conflict with viewers. Hopefully Mendoza will do the same. It’s the least she and ESPN owe viewers who expect baseball to be covered by people who aren’t being paid by teams.
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