There’s been a lot of news recently amongst ESPN’s MLB analyst ranks, largely thanks to the unceremonious firing of the controversial and polarizing Curt Schilling. But with that subtraction, ESPN is also making an addition. Former All-Star and former Fox Sports analyst Raul Ibanez will be joining ESPN in a multi-year deal to work on Baseball Tonight and in the broadcast booth.
Former Major League Baseball All-Star Raúl Ibañez has joined ESPN as a baseball analyst. In this new, multi-year agreement, Ibañez will primarily provide commentary for Baseball Tonight on ESPN. He will also serve as an analyst for select games.
In addition to MLB studio programming, Ibañez will contribute analysis to SportsCenter and other news and information programming.
Ibañez will debut as part of ESPN’s Wednesday Night Baseball telecast tonight, on April 27: Texas Rangers at New York Yankees at 8 p.m. ET.
He played 19 Major League Baseball seasons, debuting in 1996 with the Seattle Mariners and last playing in 2014 with the Kansas City Royals. He also played for the Philadelphia Phillies, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and the New York Yankees. He was an MLB All-Star in 2009 with the Phillies.
On Feb. 2, 2016, the Los Angeles Dodgers announced Ibañez joined the organization as special assistant to president of baseball operations, Andrew Friedman.
One thing about Ibanez’s hiring that should be noted is the potential conflict of interest that could arise. Just a few months ago Ibanez, along with Greg Maddux, was hired by the Los Angeles Dodgers as a special assistant in the front office. Apparently Ibanez will keep that job while working at ESPN.
Raul Ibañez was hired by ESPN as an analyst. He still works for the Dodgers as a special advisor and isn't scheduled to do any Dodger games.
— J.P. Hoornstra (@jphoornstra) April 27, 2016
That’s something ESPN should certainly tell viewers up front and be transparent about with Ibanez’s hire if he’s going to continue working for the Dodgers while analyzing games for ESPN. Still though, if Ibanez is overly optimistic about the Dodgers it could be another Chris Chelios situation.
It’s not quite a like-for-like swap with Ibanez taking all of Schilling’s airtime, but having a new face like him in the studio and in the broadcast booth will certainly help fortify ESPN’s depth chart.
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