NESN Reveals Broadcast Talent Roster For 2025 Red Sox Season

BOSTON — NESN, New England’s premier sports network, on Wednesday announced the broadcast team for the 2025 Boston Red Sox regular season. NESN’s coverage of the 2025 season will include extensive game coverage plus hour-long pregame and postgame shows. Game recaps, highlights, and exclusive content will also be available on the NESN 360 app, and the “310 to Left” podcast will be released twice weekly on YouTube and across most major podcast platforms.

NESN’s broadcast booth will consist of longtime primary play-by-play announcer Dave O’Brien, with Mike Monaco taking occasional play-by-play duties. Color analysts in the booth will include returning personalities and Red Sox alumni Lou Merloni, Will Middlebrooks and Kevin Millar. Jahmai Webster will serve as sideline reporter.

The studio team will feature returning primary studio host Tom Caron. Adam Pellerin will contribute to host duties. Studio analysts will consist of returning personalities and Red Sox alumni Lenny DiNardo, Deven Marrero and Jonathan Papelbon, and Jim Rice.

TOM CARON (@TomCaron) joined NESN in 1995 and has been a member of the NESN team for 30 years. For the past 24 seasons, he has been a member of NESN’s Red Sox broadcasts, serving as the network’s first baseball sideline reporter before moving into the role of host of the pregame and postgame shows in the championship season of 2004. Caron served as studio host for Boston Bruins hockey between 1997 and 2004 and has been the play-by-play announcer for two of New England college hockey’s biggest tournaments: the Beanpot (for 20 years) and the Hockey East championship (27 seasons). Prior to NESN, Caron was the play-by-play voice of the Portland Pirates of the AHL and was inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame in 2014. A nine-time New England Emmy Award winner, Caron has been awarded New England’s Favorite Local TV Sports Personality seven times by Channel Media Sports Research’s New England Sports Survey and was inducted into the Maine Sports Hall of Fame in 2021. Caron is involved in many local and regional charities, Co-Chairs the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s Jimmy Fund and sits on the Board of Directors of the Mass Mentoring Partnership and the MetroWest YMCA.

LENNY DINARDO (@DinardoLenny) returns for his ninth season on NESN after joining the network in 2017 as a pregame and postgame analyst. DiNardo was a pitcher for the Red Sox and a member of the 2004 World Series championship team. He also pitched for the Oakland Athletics and Kansas City Royals before retiring from baseball in 2013.

DEVEN MARRERO (@Dmarrero305) will be returning for his second season as a studio analyst for NESN. A native of Miami, Fla., Marrero played baseball at Arizona State University and was drafted by the Red Sox in the first round of the 2012 MLB Draft. He played parts of seven seasons in the major leagues, including three seasons with the Red Sox from 2015 to 2017. In addition to the Red Sox, he also spent time with the Arizona Diamondbacks, Miami Marlins and New York Mets, before retiring in 2023. During his time with the Red Sox, Marrero was an active member of the community who was involved with the Jimmy Fund, the Boston Children’s Hospital, and Best Buddies.

LOU MERLONI (@LouMerloni) is in his third season with NESN as color analyst in the NESN broadcast booth. A native of Framingham, Mass., Merloni has been working in the media for 16 years, including two years at NESN as a commentator on the Red Sox pregame and postgame shows and 14 years as an analyst for NBCSports Boston. Merloni also spent nine years with WEEI in the Red Sox radio booth and 15 years as host of WEEI’s midday and afternoon drive talk shows. He was drafted by the Red Sox in the 36th round of the 1992 MLB Draft. He played his rookie year in 1998 and hit a home run in his first at-bat at Fenway Park. Merloni played nine years in the MLB with the Red Sox (six), Padres, Indians (two), and Angels. He also played one year in Japan for the Yokohama Baystars. Merloni spent two years playing in the Cape Cod Baseball League and is a member of the Cape Cod League Hall of Fame. Merloni attended Framingham South High School and graduated from Providence College. While in college, he was named Rookie of the Year in the Big East and MVP of the Year his senior year with the Friars. He also earned the honor of being inducted into the Providence College Hall of Fame.

WILL MIDDLEBROOKS (@Middlebrooks) is in his third season in the NESN broadcast booth and fourth season as NESN pregame and postgame analyst. Middlebrooks also serves as a baseball analyst for CBS Sports HQ and is a co-host of the “WAKE and RAKE Podcast.” Selected by the Red Sox in the 2007 MLB Draft, Middlebrooks spent eight seasons in the organization, including the first three of his six years in the majors. The Texas native burst onto the scene as a rookie in 2011, batting .288 with 15 home runs and 54 RBI in 75 games. He was a key contributor to the 2013 World Series championship team, serving as the team’s primary third baseman. When the Red Sox returned to play after the Boston Marathon in 2013, Middlebrooks tweeted, “I can’t wait to put on my jersey today! I get to play for the strongest city out there. #BostonStrong,” with the hashtag becoming a rallying cry for the season.

KEVIN MILLAR (@KMillar15) is in his fourth season as an analyst in NESN’s broadcast booth. Millar has co-hosted “Intentional Talk” on MLB Network since the show’s inception in 2011. The 2004 World Series champion spent three of his 12 major league seasons with the Red Sox, batting .282 with 52 home runs and 220 RBIs in 432 games for Boston from 2003-05. The former first baseman and outfielder used “Cowboy Up!” as a rallying cry for the 2003 Red Sox team that advanced to the American League Championship Series and had a vocal role in helping the 2004 team overcome an 0-3 series deficit to the New York Yankees in the ALCS, eventually winning their first World Series in 86 years.

MIKE MONACO (@MikeMonaco_) joined NESN in 2020 and enters his fifth season for select play-by-play games. The Cohasset, Mass., native spent three seasons between 2017 and 2019 with the Pawtucket Red Sox (Triple-A) and also broadcasts NHL for ESPN, plus college sports for ESPN and the ACC Network. Before joining ESPN, Monaco broadcast college sports for FOX Sports and the Big Ten Network and has also called college basketball for NBC Sports. Monaco has called select games for NBC Sports Chicago’s coverage of the White Sox, Blackhawks and Bulls. Monaco served as a broadcaster in the Cape Cod Baseball League (2013 and 2014) and for the Chicago Cubs’ (2015) and San Diego Padres’ (2016) Single-A affiliates in the Midwest League. The University of Notre Dame graduate has also served as a play-by-play broadcaster, reporter and host for his alma mater, including nationally syndicated Notre Dame football shows.

DAVE O’BRIEN enters his 35th year of Major League Baseball broadcasting and his 10th in NESN’s play-by-play role after nine years with Red Sox radio network. O’Brien also works for ESPN as a play-by-play announcer for its college basketball coverage. Between 2002 and 2017 he served as a play-by-play commentator for ESPN, working Major League Baseball telecasts and college basketball. He has called the LCS and World Series for Major League Baseball’s International broadcasts, as well as select MLB playoff series on ESPN Radio. O’Brien worked as both a radio and television announcer for the Florida Marlins between 1993 and 2001 and was the television voice of the New York Mets on WPIX-TV between 2003 and 2005. He also did radio play-by-play on Atlanta Braves games in 1990 and 1991 as well as college football and basketball action for the University of Georgia and University of Miami. A Boston native, O’Brien received the Georgia Associated Press “Best Sports Play-by-Play” honor in 1988 and 1991 and the Achievements in Radio (A.I.R.) award for Best Play-by-Play for his call of Mark McGwire’s 59th home run in 1998. O’Brien and his family reside in Rye, N.H.

JONATHAN PAPELBON is returning for his third season as a pre and postgame analyst for the Red Sox 2025 season. Papelbon originally joined NESN serving as a weekly contributor in 2021 remotely. The 12-year MLB veteran spent his first seven seasons with the Red Sox, earning four of his six All-Star selections with Boston. A member of the 2007 World Series championship team, Papelbon recorded a save in all four games of the Sox’s Fall Classic series sweep against the Colorado Rockies. His 219 saves in a Red Sox uniform are a franchise record, with his 368 career saves ranking ninth all-time. The Florida native also pitched for the Philadelphia Phillies (2012 to 2015) and Washington Nationals (2015 to 2016) following his time in Boston.

ADAM PELLERIN (@AdamPellerin) serves as a host for NESN’s pregame and postgame shows. Pellerin fills a number of different roles at the network including hosting “NESN Clubhouse” and the “Ultimate Red Sox show.” The Mass. native joined NESN in 2012 after serving as general assignment reporter and fill-in anchor at FOX 25 for five years. His television reporting career began in Portland, Maine, at CBS affiliate WGME. Pellerin is a graduate of Suffolk University, where he was the starting catcher on the baseball team.

JIM RICE is in his 23rd year as a pregame and postgame analyst on NESN. In 2009, he became the 32nd member of the Red Sox to be elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Rice played 16 seasons in the major leagues, all with Boston. The eight-time All-Star finished his career with a .298 batting average, 382 home runs and 1,451 RBIs. Rice was voted the AL MVP in 1978 and helped lead the Red Sox to two AL pennants (1975 and 1986). He ranks third behind only Ted Williams and Carl Yastrzemski on the Red Sox all-time leaders list in hits and total bases, and fourth in home runs and RBI. Since retiring after the 1989 season, Rice has remained active in the Red Sox organization, serving as a minor league hitting instructor between 1992 and 1994 before joining the parent club as hitting coach between 1995 and 2000. He currently serves as a special organizational instructor for the team.

JAHMAI WEBSTER (@WebsterOnTV) returns to the broadcast team for his eighth season as a Red Sox sideline reporter. He joined NESN in October 2016 and served as an anchor/reporter on NESN’s sports news programs. He has also served as host of NESN’s award-winning and commercial-free Red Sox pregame show for kids, “NESN Clubhouse,” which airs on Sundays 90 minutes before game time. Before joining NESN, Webster worked at Denver’s ABC affiliate KMGH Denver7 and KITV 4 News in Honolulu. The Cal-State Northridge graduate got his start in sports broadcasting at two ABC affiliates in central Texas, KRHD-TV 40 in College Station and KXXV-TV 25 in Waco.