Jason Benetti’s inspiring journey has already included roles as a top play-by-play announcer for Fox Sports, ESPN, the Tigers, and White Sox. For his next act, Benetti is landing the choice gig of lead play-by-play announcer for NBC Sports’s coverage of Major League Baseball, Front Office Sports has learned.
According to sources, Benetti will call NBC/Peacock’s return to live baseball coverage on March 26 when the defending World Series champion Dodgers host the Diamondbacks. As NBC’s top Sunday Night Baseball announcer, he’s expected to call games with a rotating cast of color commentators culled from local broadcast teams.
In addition to MLB, Benetti is expected to call other sports for NBC. Although the Chicago native was still under contract with Fox, his former network let him out early to join NBC, say sources. While Benetti is officially leaving Fox, he’ll retain his role as the Tigers’ lead play-by-play announcer. FOS previously reported that Benetti was the lead candidate for the NBC gig.
Benetti is no stranger to calling MLB games for NBC/Peacock. He announced the 18-game MLB Sunday Leadoff package for Peacock in 2022. The previous summer, he called NBC’s Olympic Games from Tokyo.
As NBC returns to baseball coverage for the first time in 25 years, Benetti will join an all-star cast that includes studio analysts Joey Votto, Clayton Kershaw, and Anthony Rizzo, with Bob Costas hosting. The recently retired Votto, Kershaw, and Rizzo will serve as pregame studio analysts for all MLB wild-card telecasts on NBC and Peacock. They’ll also work some pregame shows before select regular-season games alongside Costas and Ahmed Fareed.
Costas, one of the most famous baseball announcers of all time, will return to NBC as host of the Sunday Night Baseball pregame show. He previously served as host and play-by-play announcer for NBC’s MLB coverage for 15 seasons.
The 42-year-old Benetti is one of the best stories in sports TV. He was born 10 weeks premature with cerebral palsy, a neurological condition caused by damage to the brain during fetal development. He had to overcome a limp and drifting eye. But that didn’t stop him from quickly rising to the top of his profession.
“The hurdles are not physical for me,” he told Hoops HQ earlier this year. “They are because I don’t look the same as everybody.”
