Based on Joey Votto’s visits to the Reds TV and radio booths, the team’s announcers say NBC Sports executives are smart to add him to their new Sunday Night Baseball team.
“I can’t wait to watch him,” says John Sadak, the Reds principal TV announcer.
“I think Votto will do a great job,” says Jeff Brantley, Reds radio and TV announcer since 2007.
Michael McCarthy reported in Front Office Sports last Thursday that Votto, recently retired Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw and free agent Yankees slugger Anthony Rizzo will be part of NBC’s broadcasts. NBC has not commented on the story, which has been widely reported by Cincinnati media.
It is not known if Votto, 42, will be on the pregame show hosted by multiple Emmy-winner Bob Costas, or in the booth as a game analyst.
Reds announcers were impressed with Votto, the 2010 National League Most Valuable Player, when he joined them for a few TV and radio games while sidelined by a shoulder injury in 2022. He retired from baseball in 2024.
“Joey sees the game extremely well, and one of the biggest things is he knows how to articulate what he’s seeing,” says Reds radio play-by-play announcer Tommy Thrall. “Because of these things, I think he will do great no matter what role they put him in. He also has the personality for it, and I don’t think he’ll shy away from showcasing it.”
Sadak, Reds TV play-by-play announcer since 2021, says he has “no doubt Joey will add detailed baseball nuance, poetic celebration of the sport, and will be plain old hilarious. Like many of those around the Reds and baseball, I can’t wait to watch him.”
Votto, a six-time All-Star, “is one of the smartest and most driven humans I’ve ever met. He is both purposefully deliberate in the most polite of fashions, and off-the-cuff, genuinely Joey. During our shared time calling Reds games he was passionate, knowledgeable and incredibly entertaining,” Sadak says.
Chris Welsh, entering his 34th year as a Reds broadcaster, says he was “really impressed with Votto (in the booth) because he gave you a completely different perspective. He used a language and vocabulary that doesn’t often come out of the mouth of a Major League Baseball player.”
Brantley, who led the National League with 44 saves while pitching for Cincinnati in 1996, often tells listeners about the “game within the game,” how a pitcher is approaching a certain situation or particular player at the plate.
“Joey can say what the hitter is thinking, and he probably knows what the pitcher is thinking too,” Brantley says. When a relief pitcher came into one game, “Joey told us that he took the first pitch because he wanted to get connected with the pitcher,” Welsh recalls.
Doing weekly games for a network — instead of 162 regular season games from March through September — is a big advantage for Votto. “He doesn’t have to deal with the toughest part — the grind of doing a game every day, and having to say something different,” Welsh says.
The difficult part of Votto’s new job will be criticizing players and managers.
“The hardest part is to be critical of a player when he makes a mistake, or when a manager makes a mistake. That’s always the hardest thing for a former player to do,” Welsh says.
Votto also must learn the timing and rhythms of a game telecast, and how to inject his comments between pitches or plays.
“The trick is to add your insights quickly, and that’s harder than it looks. This is new to him, but I never doubt Joey Votto’s work ethic so I suspect he’ll be good,” says Dave “Yiddy” Armbruster, who has produced and engineered Red radio games since the 1980s.
“It’s a matter of comfortability,” Brantley says. “They’ll help him feel comfortable so he can apply his knowledge and communicate it in the moment.”
Sadak echoed Armbrister’s praise of Votto’s work ethic.
“Joey doesn’t just ease into things. When he puts his mind to it, he goes all in. Because of this, I think he will work really hard to do a good job, and I have no doubts he will be willing to do the work it takes to prepare and do the job at a high level. I imagine he’ll have a great time with it, and as such, I think he’ll do an excellent job,” Sadak says.
“He’s a very smart guy,” Welsh says. “He was always ahead of his time as a player, and he’s going to give you TV analysis that will be ahead of its time.”
“NBC is really fortunate to get him,” Brantley says. “He’ll do his homework. I think he’ll do a wonderful job.“
NBC’s Sunday Night Baseball premieres on Opening Day, Thursday, March 26, with the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers hosting the Arizona Diamondbacks. Coverage begins at 8 p.m. on NBC, and simulcast on Peacock.
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