Adam Ottavino is joining ESPN as an MLB analyst, per Front Office Sports.<\/p>\n
Ottavino pitched for five teams over a 15-year career as one of the better relievers of his generation, last playing a full season with the New York Mets in 2024 before retiring.<\/p>\n
The 40-year-old has been one of the more compelling voices in baseball broadcasting since hanging up his cleats. When NBC unveiled its Inside the Pitch concept earlier this season<\/a>, Ottavino was the analyst dissecting pitch sequencing and arm angles during live at-bats on Sunday Night Baseball \u2014 and he\u2019s been excellent at it. Awful Announcing\u2019s Brendon Kleen\u2019s review<\/a> of the concept said he was the clear star of the idea, and the feature itself has been one of the more genuinely innovative things any network has done with baseball broadcasting in several years.<\/p>\n ESPN SVP of sports production Mark Gross told FOS<\/a> that Ottavino caught the network\u2019s attention during the 2024 postseason.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a super-smart guy. We got together in the 2024 postseason, and he was excellent. It\u2019s always good to have a pitcher in the mix,\u201d Gross said. \u201cHe embraces all the intricacies of the game, from strategy and analytics standpoints.\u201d<\/p>\n His addition comes as ESPN continues to reshape its baseball operation after surrendering Sunday Night Baseball to NBC as part of a new three-year rights deal that concentrates the network\u2019s games in midweek windows. Xavier Scruggs departed when his contract was not renewed earlier this month<\/a>, and David Cone also exited<\/a>. David Ross is returning to the analyst role<\/a> after managing the Cubs. The full rotation includes Karl Ravech, Jon \u201cBoog\u201d Sciambi, Mike Monaco, and Kevin Brown on play-by-play, with Ottavino joining Ross, Eduardo Perez,\u00a0 Todd Frazier, Jessica Mendoza, and Doug Glanville as color commentators.<\/p>\n