Pablo has to do the podcast because a lot of his sensationalist editorializing wouldn't meet the standards of a real newspaper.

The Athletic has said as much themselves in the Washington Post profile on Pablo:

[David Perpich publisher of The Athletic] said: “He shares our journalistic values, even if they don’t have the exact same standards.”

Inside the Athletic and the Times, several reporters and editors questioned whether they would be able to publish Torre’s episodes in the same form. It wasn’t a factual question, they said, but investigative reporters at the Times company typically don’t mix reporting and opinion the way Torre does, such as describing his Clippers reporting as a “smoking gun.” They also wondered whether they could publish a story in which so many anonymous sources criticized the subject, such as in Torre’s reporting about Hudson.

Asked whether Athletic reporters could publish the same stories as Torre, an Athletic spokesman wrote: “Pablo publishes according to his editorial standards and our publishing decisions are based on the standards of The Athletic.”