We are a little under three months away from Opening Day, so YES Network is beginning to finalize its 2023 Yankees broadcast team. And Cameron Maybin will not be part of it.
YES has dumped the former Bombers outfielder after a so-so rookie season as an analyst, according to The Post. But ex-Yankee Carlos Beltran — who also underwhelmed in the booth last year as a first-timer — will stick around. YES hopes to have him do more studio work, according to the report, after he seemed more comfortable there.
Also: There is still no resolution on the Paul O’Neill front.
Paul O’Neill and the network are discussing a way to bring him back into the booth, according to sources.
O’Neill has been working from home for games because of the vaccination policy imposed by YES. Both sides are trying to figure out how to have him continue but be next to Michael Kay and company in the stadiums.
As we have written several times for close to a year now: There is no federal, state, city or MLB regulation preventing the unvaccinated O’Neill from calling Yankees games on site. The only thing keeping him from being in the booth is YES’ vaccine mandate for in-person work.
If YES does not want O’Neill to work games over Zoom from his basement in Ohio — a dispensation it gave him to the detriment of the quality of its on-air product — it has two choices. The network either scraps its mandate or it fires O’Neill if he won’t comply. And it sure feels like YES realizes this, yet keeps hoping the issue will be magically fixed for it. Spoiler alert: It will not be.
Back to Maybin: He will reportedly continue working games for MLB Network and the Cubs’ Marquee Network. And he told The Post his YES exit was not his choice.
It feels like YES bailed a bit early from this vantage point. We would argue Maybin has much better upside than Beltran from what we saw out of both. But Beltran is a much bigger name as a borderline Hall of Famer. And a cynic would argue the Yankees might want to keep him around as a potential Aaron Boone replacement down the road.
Michael Kay will be the main play-by-player, with Ryan Ruocco again serving as his backup. David Cone will be back. Meredith Marokovits will be the field reporter. The Post reports John Flaherty and Jeff Nelson will get more analyst reps. And YES is still chasing a limited Derek Jeter role, although we all know that’s never going to happen.
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James Kratch can be reached at james.kratch@xlmedia.com
