Nelson Figueroa finally addressed his unceremonious exit from SNY.
The Mets analyst was fired from the station after showing up to work in a “state not fit to work” on May 30th, according to The Post’s Andrew Marchand. He allegedly demanded to be put on “Baseball Night in New York” that evening, but the network refused.
The 45-year-old former big-league pitcher, talking to Julie Stewart-Binks on Fubo Sports Network’s “Call it a Night” on Thursday, spun a different version of the story.
“I think basically what it comes down to is, it kind of ran its course,” Figueroa told Stewart-Binks. “Four years, I was nominated for four Emmys. Going into Year 5, I was thinking it was going to be a chance to do bigger and better things, they decided to go in a different direction.”
SNY had decided before the season to promote Todd Zeile to SNY’s lead studio analyst, pushing Figueroa back to a complementary role.
“Having said that, I was on a different show and going to have to work almost three times as much to make half as much and it was a very stressful time, I think on all parties,” Figueroa said. “I don’t feel like it was the best fit for me at that point and I think it just kind of ran its course.”
Despite not delving into details of exactly what transpired, Figueroa pointed to another infamous sports exit: Jerry Maguire, the Tom Cruise-portrayed sports agent who takes the company goldfish — and Renee Zellwegger’s character Dorothy Boyd — with him out the door of the sports agency he worked for.
“If you’ve seen Jerry Maguire, I have the goldfish in my house right now, let’s just put it that way,” Figueroa said.



