‘Fearless’ Anthony Rizzo maturing into ‘Inside the Pitch’ role

Anthony Rizzo’s first season as a broadcaster has gone about as smoothly as his career at first base.

Speaking on a conference call with reporters earlier this week, Rizzo opened up about his first season as NBC’s Inside the Pitch contributor on Sunday Night Baseball, a role he said came together over dinner with NBC Sports executive producer Sam Flood and producer Bruce Cornblatt shortly after the network launched its new baseball package.

“Throughout this whole time, I’m just learning how to get better, how to announce better, how to be more energetic, and be myself at the same time,” Rizzo said. “It’s really unique being so fresh removed and knowing a lot of guys in the clubhouses and getting their intel and just being up to speed with today’s game.”

On that same conference call, Bob Costas and Jason Benetti were both asked to weigh in on how Rizzo has taken to the job.

“Anthony is as self-critical as anybody who wants to be good at what they do is,” Costas opined.

Costas said Rizzo starts at a higher level than he gives himself credit for, is comfortable on-air, and is easy to work with. The real value right now, Costas added, is that when you’re that freshly removed from the game, talking about guys you just played with or against, the insights are naturally deeper. Once that direct familiarity fades, the greats compensate by going deeper into their relationships with scouts, coaches, and managers, with Costas pointing to Tim McCarver and Tony Kubek as the models.

“I feel like I can toss almost anything Anthony’s way, and he is going to field it as smoothly as a four-time Gold Glover will,” the longtime NBC broadcaster said.

Benetti went further, calling Rizzo fearless. The logistics of NBC’s Sunday Night Baseball setup put Rizzo at field level while Benetti and the local analysts call the game from the upstairs booth — a format that requires the Inside the Pitch contributor to fill segments independently, without the natural back-and-forth of a traditional booth. Benetti said Rizzo had gone over two sentences in six games, calling it other-worldly for someone so new to the job. He pointed to a breakdown Rizzo delivered on Phillies left-hander Jose Alvarado — what batters would be thinking against him, how his inconsistency plays into at-bat strategy — as exactly the kind of insight the segment was designed to produce.

“He was fearless about being snarky with John Kruk and John Franco, and he’s got an understanding of people that is well beyond his years,” Benetti said, referencing the Mets-Phillies Sunday Night Baseball broadcast that drew 3 million viewers last week. “I think part of it comes from his journey, but part of it comes from the fact that Anthony is just genuinely a really good teammate, and that is enormous in this enterprise.”

NBC signed Rizzo in January as part of a broadcast team built around recently retired players with deep familiarity with the modern game. The three-time All-Star retired in September 2025 after 14 seasons — the bulk of them with the Cubs — during which he won the 2016 World Series and became one of the most recognizable faces in the sport. He joined a pregame crew that includes Bob Costas, Ahmed Fareed, Joey Votto, and Clayton Kershaw for select events, working games on-site throughout the season alongside Benetti and the rotating local analyst each week. He received weekly coaching from Cornblatt throughout the season and credited Benetti’s preparation and Costas’ professionalism as other pillars of his development.

“Seeing his preparation,” Rizzo said of Costas. “There’s been a few games where we had to audible quickly on the fly on the pregame show. That’s what live television is, and it’s been a lot of fun.”