Maybe The Church Lady had intel from a higher power, or maybe it was just lucky timing. Saturday Night Live managed to correctly predict the future again this weekend, calling baseball star Juan Soto’s signing to the New York Mets 24 hours before the news broke.
The cold open of this weekend’s SNL already saw Dana Carvey‘s Church Lady make history as the first character to appear on the show across five separate decades. In the character’s first sketch since 2016, she welcomed a few figures from what she called “the most satanic year in history,” bringing out Matt Gaetz (Sarah Sherman) and Hunter Biden (David Spade), and finally baseball free agent Juan Soto (Marcello Hernandez).
While not quite as maligned a figure as Gaetz and Biden, Soto has dominated the sports news cycle this week as baseball fans and reporters speculated on which team the former New York Yankee might sign with.
“My next guest is a baseball free agent about to sign the biggest contract in all of time,” The Church Lady said as Soto entered wearing a blank baseball jersey with a question mark on it.
“You know, money is the root of all evil,” she then told him.
“If that’s true, then I’m gonna become the most evil baseball player in the world,” Soto replied.
(Hernandez is a fitting choice to play Soto. In addition to his fluent command of the Spanish language, which he put on display during the sketch, the SNL rising star fronted an ad campaign for the MLB earlier this year.)
Asked what team he expected to pick, Hernandez’ Soto said, “I don’t know. Right now, I hope the Yankees make me the best offer.”
“Why not spend your time and money helping the needy and the less fortunate?” Church Lady then asked.
“You’re right,” Soto told her. “Maybe I sign with the Mets.”
Juan Soto SNL skit last night. Oh how the tables turned in less than 24 hrs lmao pic.twitter.com/YZPR1J1FZY
— Joe (@jettyburg) December 9, 2024
On Sunday night, news leaked out that Soto has accepted an offer from the Mets that will earn him $765 million over 15 years.
Although Soto’s signing with the Mets shouldn’t come as a huge suprise, given billionaire team owner Steve Cohen’s willingness to reach deep into his pockets for major stars, the whiplash speed between SNL joke and reality earns it a place in alongside Kanye interrupting the VMAs and three-bladed razors on the show’s Simpsons-like list of jokes come true.
