Jason Benetti Named NBC’s New Sunday Night Baseball Play-by-Play Voice

Jason Benetti will become NBC's lead baseball announcer when the network brings back Sunday Night Baseball after ESPN's 26-year run. The veteran broadcaster will debut Thursday night calling the Dodgers-Diamondbacks game, marking NBC's return to regular season baseball coverage.

NBC Sports executive producer Sam Flood knew exactly who he wanted calling games when he discovered in November that his network would resume baseball broadcasting.

Baseball fans will experience this vision firsthand Thursday during NBC’s Opening Day doubleheader coverage.

Jason Benetti will make his network debut as NBC’s primary baseball voice during the evening matchup featuring the back-to-back World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers taking on the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The veteran announcer becomes the new voice behind Sunday Night Baseball, which NBC and Peacock are taking over following ESPN’s 26-season tenure. Benetti previously handled play-by-play duties for MLB Sunday Leadoff on Peacock in 2022 and called baseball for NBC during the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

“Sam and I always joked after 2022 — and he was serious, and it turned out I was, too — that if NBC ever got baseball back in this sort of state, that I would be on the list of people that he would call. And I firmly appreciate that,” Benetti said.

Fox Sports released Benetti from his contract early to pursue this opportunity. He had been calling baseball, NFL, college football and college basketball for Fox since 2022.

NBC secured rights to Sunday evening games and Wild Card playoff rounds for the next three years after ESPN chose not to extend its original agreement with Major League Baseball.

Baseball enthusiasts, particularly in Detroit and Chicago markets, recognize Benetti’s distinctive voice. He’s entering his third season providing local Tigers game coverage following eight years with the White Sox.

Sunday Night Baseball will maintain the same structure used for Sunday Leadoff programming. Benetti will share booth duties with analysts representing both competing teams. Thursday’s broadcast features former Dodgers pitcher Orel Hershiser alongside Diamondbacks slugger Luis Gonzalez, who helped deliver the franchise’s 2001 World Series championship.

The inaugural Sunday Night Baseball game between Cleveland Guardians and Seattle Mariners will include Rick Manning and Ryan Rowland-Smith as analysts.

“At some point, somebody will ask if you’re around a bunch of baseball people, what three people would you want to have at the dinner table to talk baseball? And I kind of get to do that with this every week,” Benetti said. “It’s going to be two separate people who maybe you haven’t heard have a baseball conversation before. That brings me a lot of joy and curiosity, and we think it’s going to be for fans as well.”

This dual-analyst approach recalls NBC’s World Series coverage history. Between 1947 and 1976, NBC featured play-by-play announcers or analysts from participating teams during the Fall Classic.

NBC’s 1975 World Series coverage included Red Sox announcer Dick Stockton calling Carlton Fisk’s legendary 12th-inning Game 6 home run. Stockton later became CBS’s primary NBA voice.

“The biggest complaint you hear during the postseason in baseball is, I can’t hear my people. I can’t hear my guys call the game. We’re going to have one person that’s authentic to that team calling games through the season,” Flood said. “When we do the Wild Card round, it will exist as well. Because it’s the best way to know exactly what’s going on inside each clubhouse, on the field, who’s hot, who’s not, and what matters most to those fans.”

Benetti welcomes the weekly challenge of collaborating with different analysts, describing the nine-inning dynamic with two distinct personalities as an engaging puzzle.

He compared the experience to his college basketball work alongside the late Bill Walton on ESPN, including a memorable 2019 White Sox-Angels game in Southern California where Walton served as analyst.

“When I worked with Bill — a marvelous, joyful human being — you just had to know that you’re going to have to pay attention to the game and then Bill and the conversation, whatever crosses your own synapses, and then weigh that at all times. And it’s this crossword puzzle that is not black and white; it’s like psychedelic squares instead, but you just kind of have to always gauge where your mind needs to go. And the answer usually is two or three places at once,” Benetti said. “Working with Bill in large part taught me that you can have a conversation about a lot of things while honoring the game and having a great time doing it.”

NBC will debut an “inside pitch” segment during broadcasts, featuring analysis from studio analysts Clayton Kershaw and Adam Ottavino.

Flood expects to incorporate this feature once per inning or every other inning.

“The idea is to really take you through how Adam would approach pitching to Juan Soto or ‘The Password’ (the nickname for Jhostynxon Garcia). Whatever it is, he’s going to take you through that approach, during the at-bat, and looking at it through the lens of a pitcher who was on that mound in a recent season facing these same hitters,” Flood said.

Thursday’s opening NBC game showcases reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Paul Skenes and the Pittsburgh Pirates against Juan Soto and the New York Mets. Matt Vasgersian, who calls Sunday afternoon Peacock games, will team with Al Leiter and Neil Walker.

NBC’s first Sunday night broadcast is scheduled for April 12 when Cleveland visits the Atlanta Braves. The following six weeks will air on Peacock and NBCSN before NBC takes over Sunday night coverage from May 31 through September 6.

NBC maintains extensive baseball history despite recent absence from the sport. The network broadcast games from 1939 through 1989, participated in the short-lived Baseball Network partnership with ABC in 1994-95, and aired playoff coverage from 1996 through 2000.