Adam Ottavino is joining ESPN as an MLB analyst, per Front Office Sports.
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.
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, Ottavino was the analyst dissecting pitch sequencing and arm angles during live at-bats on Sunday Night Baseball — and he’s been excellent at it. Awful Announcing’s Brendon Kleen’s review 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.
ESPN SVP of sports production Mark Gross told FOS that Ottavino caught the network’s attention during the 2024 postseason.
“He’s a super-smart guy. We got together in the 2024 postseason, and he was excellent. It’s always good to have a pitcher in the mix,” Gross said. “He embraces all the intricacies of the game, from strategy and analytics standpoints.”
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’s games in midweek windows. Xavier Scruggs departed when his contract was not renewed earlier this month, and David Cone also exited. David Ross is returning to the analyst role after managing the Cubs. The full rotation includes Karl Ravech, Jon “Boog” Sciambi, Mike Monaco, and Kevin Brown on play-by-play, with Ottavino joining Ross, Eduardo Perez, Todd Frazier, Jessica Mendoza, and Doug Glanville as color commentators.
ESPN opens its 2026 slate on Jackie Robinson Day, April 15, with Joe Buck, Orel Hershiser, and Ron Darling on the call, which The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand reported earlier this week.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.