{"id":728512,"date":"2026-06-17T18:33:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T18:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/728512\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T18:33:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T18:33:14","slug":"mlb-network-adds-mike-rizzo-to-draft-combine-coverage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/728512\/","title":{"rendered":"MLB Network adds Mike Rizzo to Draft Combine coverage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>MLB Network is adding another decorated front-office voice to its Draft Combine coverage.<\/p>\n<p>Mike Rizzo will serve as an analyst for the network\u2019s June 23 Draft Combine coverage at Chase Field, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsbusinessjournal.com\/Articles\/2026\/06\/17\/mlb-network-adds-ex-nationals-gm-mike-rizzo-to-draft-combine-coverage\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">according to Sports Business Journal<\/a>, joining Dan O\u2019Dowd as the second former MLB general manager on the broadcast. Rizzo spent 17 seasons running the Nationals\u2019 baseball operations department, including the 2019 World Series-winning season, before the team let him go last July alongside manager Davey Martinez amid a stalled rebuild.<\/p>\n<p>Rizzo, whose scouting departments in Arizona and Washington produced No. 1 overall picks Justin Upton, Stephen Strasburg, and Bryce Harper, has made occasional appearances on MLB Network since his firing, including as a contributor to the network\u2019s annual Top Ten Right Now offseason series.<\/p>\n<p>MLB Network <a href=\"https:\/\/awfulannouncing.com\/mlb\/golden-spikes-award-usa-baseball-2026.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">became the new home of the Golden Spikes Award presentation<\/a> this year, adding to its existing role as the exclusive home of the Draft Combine since 2021. The network\u2019s amateur baseball coverage doesn\u2019t stop there, either, with the Andre Dawson Classic and the Desert Invitational both part of its rotation outside the USA Baseball partnership.<\/p>\n<p>This year\u2019s Combine runs June 23-26 at Chase Field, with 335 prospects in attendance and a five-hour on-site MLB Network program on June 23 featuring O\u2019Dowd, Greg Amsinger, Jared Carrabis, Harold Reynolds, Xavier Scruggs, Jim Callis, Lance Brozdowski, Mike Lowell, and Dan Plesac. A feature on Georgia Tech standout Vahn Lackey airs tonight on the National Pregame Show ahead of the Combine, with the Draft itself set for July 11-12 in Philadelphia during All-Star Week.<\/p>\n<p>Amsinger, who has hosted the network\u2019s draft coverage since 2009, has talked before about what the steady expansion of names and coverage says about the event\u2019s growth, <a href=\"https:\/\/awfulannouncing.com\/league-networks\/greg-amsinger-mlb-network-mlb-draft.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">telling AA in 2021<\/a>\u00a0that \u201cit\u2019s symbolic of the growth and the importance of this event.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MLB Network is adding another decorated front-office voice to its Draft Combine coverage. Mike Rizzo will serve as&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":728513,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2398],"tags":[5,1207,15575,25901,27941,6484,4,24734,1451,415,9713,23788,414,71,4222],"class_list":["post-728512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-washington-nationals","tag-baseball","tag-bryce-harper","tag-dan-odowd","tag-golden-spikes-award","tag-justin-upton","tag-mike-rizzo","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-draft-combine","tag-mlb-network","tag-nationals","tag-stephen-strasburg","tag-usa-baseball","tag-washington","tag-washington-nationals","tag-washingtonnationals"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116766887544778500","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=728512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/728513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=728512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=728512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=728512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}