UPDATE (12:31 p.m. ET): Alex Rodriguez officially is joining the ESPN “Sunday Night Baseball” team, along with new play-by-play announcer Matt Vasgersian.
ORIGINAL STORY: Alex Rodriguez surprisingly has become one of baseball’s most popular broadcasters, and he’ll share his on-air talent between two major networks this season.
ESPN is finalizing a deal with Rodriguez to have the recently retired New York Yankees slugger join its “Sunday Night Baseball” broadcast as an analyst, Sporting News’ Michael McCarthy reported Tuesday, citing sources.
Rodriguez will join Jessica Mendoza, Buster Olney as analysts on the broadcast, while ESPN is working to hire FOX Sports/MLB Network’s Matt Vasgersian as “Sunday Night Baseball’s” new play-by-play man in place of Dan Shulman, per McCarthy.
A-Rod won’t have to give up his current gig at FOX, however. In a unique agreement, the 42-year-old will continue to star in FOX Sports’ and TBS’ pre- and postgame shows during the postseason, as he did last year alongside host Kevin Burkhardt and analysts David Ortiz and Frank Thomas.
As McCarthy points out, such a deal became possible after ESPN’s parent company, Disney, acquired 21st Century Fox in a massive deal in December.
Bottom line: Expect to see a whole lot more of A-Rod in the broadcast booth this season.
