The New York Mets radio booth has been the pinnacle of baseball broadcasting. It started with Linsey Nelson and Bob Murphy as future Ford C. Frick Award winners along with the beloved Ralph Kiner. That trio would pull double duty between radio and television.

Eventually, Murphy would pass the baton to Gary Cohen. After his retirement, Cohen worked alongside Howie Rose. With that duo, we had lifelong Mets fans who were also great play-by-play announcers. We will soon see them inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame.

With Wayne Randazzo departing to the Los Angeles Angels, the Mets had an opportunity to find their next great voice, and they had an opportunity to find another lifelong Mets fan who can potentially be this generation’s version of Gary and Howie.

According to Andrew Marchand of the New York Post, the Mets are expected to hire Brooklyn Cyclones radio voice Keith Raad to join Rose in the booth for the 2023 season. Marchand reported Raad impressed Rose and Audacy, the parent company of WCBS Radio. Now, the hire is pending approval from the Mets and formal acceptance by Raad.

For those unfamiliar with his work, Raad has some of his radio play-by-play work posted on his personal website.

Raad grew up on Long Island and is a graduate of Chaminade High School. As noted on his website, he also calls games for Wagner Seahawks football, women’s basketball on NEC Front Row, Maryland Eastern Shore Hawks basketball, and volleyball on FloSports and Facebook Live. He has also done public address announcing for Army football on top of his freelance work.

Of course, he has been the Cyclones’ play-by-play announcer for the past four seasons. Interestingly enough, the Cyclones slogan is “Amazin’ starts here” and that is very evident with Raad soon to be joining former Cyclones players like Pete Alonso, Francisco Álvarez, Jeff McNeil, and Brandon Nimmo to make it to the majors.