It was announced earlier this week that Wayne Hagin (above, left)would join Howie Rose in the Mets radio booth this spring, thus putting an end to the frequent pleas of WFAN callers that Ed Coleman be awarded the gig. The New York Post’s Phil Mushnick, apparently no fan of MLB.com or XM radio, sought an informed opinion elsewhere.

We spoke with four fellows who are familiar with the new Mets radio man, 51-year-old Wayne Hagin, from his days working Cardinals and White Sox broadcasts. Their consensus:

Hagin has good pipes and he knows baseball, both its nuts and bolts and its history. He’s a solid but somewhat vanilla listen who mostly shuns the self-promotional junk. He’s not an overt homer. If the Mets were looking for a solid, unspectacular career pro, they hired one.

That written, when the Mets two seasons ago brought Ron Darling to the TV booth, friends in the D.C. area who had heard him work Nationals telecasts the previous season provided a consensus that Darling was dreadfully dull, disinclined to provide significant analysis or interesting storytelling. They were convinced that Darling’s hire by SNY was strictly for sentimental reasons.

I’m glad I didn’t provide that consensus in this space. Darling, almost from the start, here, has been terrific.

If Hagin is indeed, that uncontroversial a choice, why weren’t any of Phil’s sources willing to speak on the record?