I can’t speak to the former, but the latter has been going on for a while - A-Rod and David Ortiz have similar titles with the Yankees and Red Sox, and I remember Joe Morgan having a role like that with the Reds back when he was on ESPN, too.Wait, what? What has she ever done to qualify for a FO position? And how can she still announce games while employed by a team?
Now, as P91 said, the title of “special assistant” is nebulous; a lot of the ex-players with that gig are more like goodwill ambassadors and/or people who show up in ST or whatever to talk to/ work with the younger players. I have no idea what the Mets’ plans are (a sentence that is often accurate); maybe it’s something like that.
The conflict-of-interest thing seems a bit overblown also; she’s not going to schoolyard taunt the Braves during a broadcast or anything. I’m not sure total objectivity in the booth is possible or desirable, even on a national broadcast, but that’s a discussion for a different day. If she were an OTL reporter, that would be different.
(EDIT: also, the post below mine.)