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Adam Ottavino is joining ESPN as an MLB analyst, the network confirmed to Front Office Sports.
Ottavino, 40, pitched for the Cardinals, Rockies, Yankees, Red Sox, and Mets during his 15-year MLB career as a reliever.
“He’s a super-smart guy. We got together in the 2024 postseason and he was excellent. It’s always good to have a pitcher in the mix,” ESPN SVP of sports production Mark Gross told FOS. “He embraces all the intricacies of the game, from strategy and analytics standpoints.”
Whereas you could previously set your watch to MLB airing on ESPN on Sunday nights—and before that, also regularly on Wednesday nights—this season’s schedule is a little wonky, and there is no set pattern for when games will air. After ESPN and MLB ended their previous rights deal last year, NBC assumed the Sunday Night Baseball package this season and restored Sunday morning games on its Peacock streaming service.
There is also not currently a set “lead” announce team for ESPN as there has been in years past. Instead, it will be a rotation with Karl Ravech, Jon ‘Boog’ Sciambi, Mike Monaco, and Kevin Brown on play-by-play, with Ottavino, Eduardo Perez, David Ross (who is returning to ESPN as an analyst this season, after departing in 2019 to manage the Cubs), Todd Frazier, Jess Mendoza, and Doug Glanville as color commentators. Most of the analysts will also chip in on Baseball Tonight studio programming.
There will also be a one-off with Joe Buck, Ron Darling, and Orel Hershiser calling Mets-Dodgers on Apr. 15, as The Athletic first reported.
“We love our schedule. We love being on weeknights with the occasional weekend. We get some doubleheaders. We kind of have to rethink how to utilize our folks who are on the air because the schedule is obviously different—but we still have 30 exclusive games,” Gross said.
While the TV package has changed, ESPN has retained its full MLB radio rights, including the postseason and World Series.
