juan Soto seemingly dropped out of a scheduled in-game interview with ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball” telecast, and New York Mets fans think they know why.

Soto was slated to wear a microphone during Sunday night’s game against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium in New York. ESPN’s Buster Olney promoted the segment, but said in a post on X that the plan was to ask Soto about the season Aaron Judge is having for the Yankees.

On Sunday Night Baseball, we’ve got the Mets and Yankees, Juan Soto wearing the mic, and we’ll ask him about Aaron Judge’s season. Per @EliasSports: Judge reached base for the 100th time this season on Friday night. He did so in the team’s 44th game of the season. That’s the…

https://twitter.com/Buster_ESPN/status/1924107041661997494?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1924107041661997494%7Ctwgr%5E447e3384bd714fc337e95e63f19e84c3a9ea5157%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Flarrybrownsports.com%2Fbaseball%2Fmets-fans-theory-juan-soto-espn-micd-up%2F698254

A few hours after Olney promoted Soto’s mic’d appearance, Andrew Marchand of The Athletic revealed that there had been a change in plans, and Mets outfielder Brandon Nimmo would wear the mic instead of Soto.

Pinch hitter: Brandon Nimmo will now be mic’d up instead of Soto. https://t.co/iNJw9G8Pc4

https://twitter.com/AndrewMarchand/status/1924216354501976458?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1924216354501976458%7Ctwgr%5E447e3384bd714fc337e95e63f19e84c3a9ea5157%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Flarrybrownsports.com%2Fbaseball%2Fmets-fans-theory-juan-soto-espn-micd-up%2F698254

It’s not clear what the reason was for the sudden change, or whether Soto even had any role in getting out of microphone duty. Many Mets fans, however, thought Soto might have backed out of the interview after ESPN promoted it with a focus on Judge, and wanted to avoid having to answer a host of questions about the Yankees.

Shocking: Soto didn’t want to be asked 21 questions about his former team

https://twitter.com/lfgm_chris/status/1924225997609603544?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1924225997609603544%7Ctwgr%5E447e3384bd714fc337e95e63f19e84c3a9ea5157%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Flarrybrownsports.com%2Fbaseball%2Fmets-fans-theory-juan-soto-espn-micd-up%2F698254

It’s because Buster telegraphed the most ridiculous question imaginable

https://twitter.com/ReyAztecaNYC/status/1924225599079346613?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1924225599079346613%7Ctwgr%5E447e3384bd714fc337e95e63f19e84c3a9ea5157%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Flarrybrownsports.com%2Fbaseball%2Fmets-fans-theory-juan-soto-espn-micd-up%2F698254

I mean, wanting him mic’d up only to ask him about Aaron Judge’s season was a pretty stupid idea by @Buster_ESPN. So glad Soto changed his mind. https://t.co/AOfq7BpcFL

https://twitter.com/CalmYourMitts/status/1924222429301244116?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1924222429301244116%7Ctwgr%5E447e3384bd714fc337e95e63f19e84c3a9ea5157%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Flarrybrownsports.com%2Fbaseball%2Fmets-fans-theory-juan-soto-espn-micd-up%2F698254

Soto and Judge were the Yankees’ 1-2 punch in 2024, but there has been a great deal of speculation about their relationship since Soto departed for the Mets. Judge is off to a historically great season, and ESPN will understandably want to focus on that during their broadcast.

In addition, Soto also made a remark earlier this season that some took as an admission that he missed hitting next to Judge in the lineup. He might not have wanted to make another remark that could have been construed that way.

Given the backstory with Soto, Judge, and the Yankees, one can understand why the Mets outfielder sought to avoid that. He has been booed all weekend, and Sunday night’s game will be no different. It’s a bit of a surprise he agreed to wear a mic in the first place while dealing with that environment.