SNY’s popular Mets announcing trio will live on.
In the days before pitchers and catchers officially report to spring training, Keith Hernandez agreed to a three-year contract to return to the booth, with the deal being finalized on Thursday, The Post’s Mike Puma reported.
In October, Hernandez revealed to The Post’s Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman that he wanted a three-year contract with the network and that he was not ready to give up his analyst gig just yet.
“I am not ready to retire,” Hernandez said on “The Show” podcast then. “If I do another three years, they’ve always been three-year deals, and then the three-year deal will take me to 75.
“I just turned 72 and I’m ready to do another three.”
Hernandez has been a key part of the SNY broadcast alongside play-by-play man Gary Cohen and former Mets teammate Ron Darling since the 2006 season after previously working Mets games on MSG.
He has won three Emmys (2009, 2012, 2015) for his work in the booth.
Despite being in negotiations with SNY during the offseason, Hernandez was vocal about the Mets’ moves during free agency, saying that he was left “speechless” after Pete Alonso left the team for a deal with the Orioles.
“I’m a little bit speechless,” he said during an appearance on “SportsNite” in December. “This is very explosive. In the years that I’ve been with the Mets, I have not seen this kind of moving in a new direction, I guess. It is definite — it is profound.”
Hernandez added that the Mets’ direction this offseason would revolve around pitching and defense, citing how the Amazin’s won the 1969 World Series using that blueprint.
“It’s going to be defense and also pitching,” he added. “I always look to the ’69 Mets when you have a team that won a world championship with great pitching and didn’t have a great offense … not by any stretch of the imagination.”
The Amazin’s ended up adding infielders Bo Bichette and Jorge Polanco, outfielder Eloy Jimenez, and pitchers Freddy Peralta, Tobias Myers, Devin Williams and Luke Weaver in a sizable overhaul.
