In order to release Alex Rodriguez from potentially critiquing Major League Baseball players he may end up employing, ESPN will be sending him to the bench during broadcasts featuring the New York Mets.
The 44-year-old three-time MVP will retain his role as an analyst on Sunday Night Baseball, but will be relieved by former Brave Chipper Jones on July 26 when the Mets take on the Braves, according to The New York Post.
“[We’ll] shy away from having Alex do a Mets game, so we don’t put him in a bad position … given what’s going on,” Mark Gross, ESPN senior vice president of production and remote events, said during a conference call.
Rodriguez and 50-year-old partner Jennifer Lopez have been putting together a team, which includes Vitamin Water co-founder Mike Repole, that is expected to make a bid for the club and purchase the 80 percent stake the owners of the Mets, the Wilpon family, are trying to sell. Dave Portnoy, the majority owner of Barstool Sports, has also been mentioned as a potential member of J-Rod’s ownership group.
Joined by executives from JPMorgan, Rodriguez and Lopez reportedly flew to Massachusetts to meet with Patriots owner Robert Kraft and his son Jonathan to discuss a partnership on stadium operations should their bid to buy the Mets succeed, according to the New York Post’s Thornton McEnery.
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