New faces are coming to Bally Sports Detroit.
The network, owned by Diamond Sports Group, has hired former MLB players Cameron Maybin and Todd Jones to televise Detroit Tigers games through the 2023 season, BSD announced Thursday.
Craig Monroe has been promoted as the primary in-game analyst, along with returning play-by-play announcer Matt Sheppard. Monroe, 45, who played six of his nine seasons with the Tigers and went to the 2006 World Series, joined the roster in 2012.
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Hall of Fame pitcher Jack Morris, a three-time World Series champion, will not return to the television booth for the 2023 season. After promoting Monroe, Bally Sports Detroit offered Morris a smaller assignment package, but he declined and the two sides parted ways.
Morris, 67, started working as an analyst in 2013 and began covering the Tigers in 2015. He served as a permanent member of the broadcast from 2019-22. In 2021, he was suspended for 23 days for making an apparently racist comment toward Los Angeles Angels superstar Shohei Ohtani.
In 2023, the Tigers’ broadcast team has six members: Sheppard (play-by-play), Monroe (lead play-by-play analyst), Kirk Gibson (in-play analyst), Dan Petrie (lead studio analyst), Maybey (studio analyst) and Jones (studio analyst). analyst).
Petrie and Maybin will rotate into the television booth as game analysts.
Monroe would work approximately 130 games, followed by Petrie (approximately 100 games), Gibson (approximately 40 games), Maybin (approximately 30 games) and Jones (approximately 15 games). Monroe was assigned to nearly 100 games as an in-game analyst and nearly 30 games as a pre-game and post-game studio analyst.
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Maybin, 35, arrives at Bally Sports Detroit after a year with the New York Yankees’ YES Network and the Chicago Cubs’ Marquee Network. Both networks changed broadcast plans this offseason and did not retain Maybin for 2023.
While with the Tigers, Maybin will continue as an on-air contributor on MLB Network.
Prior to the broadcast, Maybin played 1,162 games for 10 different teams over 15 seasons from 2007-21. The Tigers selected him with the No. 10 overall pick in the 2005 draft. The outfielder played three seasons for the Tigers in 2007, 2016 and 2020 and hit .289 with six home runs in 132 games.
When the Tigers called up Maybin for his MLB debut, Monroe was designated for assignment and never played another game in the organization. The decision, widely considered a bold move by the Tigers’ front office, came amid an intense battle in August 2007.
The Tigers traded Maybin three times: to the Florida Marlins in 2007 as part of a franchise-changing Miguel Cabrera package, to the Los Angeles Angels in 2016 for pitcher Victor Alcantara and to the Cubs in 2020 for infielder Zach Short.
Maybin retired in January 2022.
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54-year-old Jones previously appeared on “Tigers” TV.
He is known for his 16-year, 982-game career. The right-hander pitched in eight seasons with the Tigers, from 1997-2001 and 2006-08, and remains the franchise’s all-time leader with 235 saves. He received the nickname “Roller Coaster” from legendary radio host Ernie Harwell.
In June 2019, Gibson, who had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, decided his health would not allow him to complete the final leg of a 10-day road trip from New York to Baltimore to Atlanta. Jones, who lived in Atlanta, answered the call from the production staff and served as an analyst for the series finale.
Jones now has an established role at the network.
He recorded 319 career saves and ranks 22nd on the all-time saves list. He led the American League with 42 saves in 2000, a single-season record for the Tigers. In 2011, Jose Valverde topped Jones’ record with 49 saves.
Jones announced his retirement in September 2008.
Diamond Sports Group, a subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Group, is poised to file for bankruptcy, according to Bloomberg, which could result in MLB teams losing lucrative broadcast rights. In the Detroit market, Bally Sports televises the Tigers, Pistons and Red Wings.
Bally Sports Detroit will air seven Tigers games during spring training: March 5 (Minnesota Twins), March 8 (Washington Nationals), March 10 (Yankees), March 13 (Tampa Bay Rays) , March 17 (Yankees), March 20 (Toronto). Blue Jays) and March 22 (Braves).
Opening Day is set for March 30 against the Rays at Tropicana Field.
Contact Evan Petzold at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter@EvanPetzold:.
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