Daniel Murphy is here for the long haul.
After joining SNY’s spring training coverage in 2024, the former Mets second baseman is set to finish out this year’s spring training in the booth once again. Back in August, we speculated about Murphy’s potential as the future of the Mets’ broadcast booth — and it now looks like that vision is becoming a reality.
In addition to wrapping up New York’s Spring Training before the team heads to Houston for Opening Day, Daniel Murphy will return to the booth in late April. According to Mike Puma of the New York Post, Murphy will join Gary Cohen — and potentially Ron Darling or Keith Hernandez — for a series against another one of his former teams, the Washington Nationals.
Per Puma, SNY plans to make Murphy a regular presence during the season, although the number of games that entails, aside from the Washington series, is still up in the air.
Hernandez, however, isn’t looking to step away just yet.
Despite Murphy likely being his heir apparent in the broadcast booth, Hernandez revealed that he’s not planning on “packing it in” anytime soon. His contract currently runs through the 2025 season. And as he approaches 72 years old, Hernandez hopes to cut back on his workload, possibly reducing his games from 110 to around 90 or 100, giving him a bit more time off.
That adjustment could open the door for Murphy to step in for more regular season duties. While Murphy has teamed up with both Hernandez and Darling before, he’s also filled in when Hernandez is off, especially during TBS national broadcast windows, where Darling is a regular.
The Mets have already turned to Jerry Blevins, Todd Zeile and now Murphy in those situations, so this isn’t anything new.
Murphy is clearly being groomed for a long-term role with the Mets, and his growing presence in the booth is just the beginning. As Hernandez begins to scale back, Murphy’s transition into a more prominent role seems inevitable. Whether it’s calling games and yukking it up alongside Cohen or stepping in when Hernandez is away, we’ll see a lot more of Murphy in the years to come.
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.