2 hats are better than 1: Mendoza happy with ESPN, Mets role
NEW YORK — Jessica Mendoza has heard the ribbing.
An ESPN “Sunday Night Baseball” analyst since 2015, she added a part-time role last month as a New York Mets baseball operations adviser.
“OK, you work for the Mets, we can’t talk to you anymore,” she recalled hearing from teams during her spring training rounds, quickly adding “in a joking way.”
She’s not worried that wearing two hats will lead to less inside info for her two ears. In an era when players and clubs treat the tiniest tidbit as a state secret, Mendoza already felt teams were hesitant to provide her intelligence in her pundit role because they knew “information they would give me as a member from ESPN was about to go on air.” She doesn’t expect that to change with the new job title.