NBC seems to have landed on its fourth play-by-play voice for the network’s expanded MLB postseason coverage.
With a tripleheader in tow this coming Sunday, the network announced that Tom McCarthy will be behind the mic for Nationals-Marlins on MLB Sunday Leadoff at noon ET on Peacock and NBCSN alongside Jeff Nelson, Kevin Frandsen, and Jordan Cornette.
McCarthy, the television voice of the Philadelphia Phillies, now joins a Sunday Leadoff stable that already includes Matt Vasgersian and Dave Flemming, while Jason Benetti continues to helm Sunday Night Baseball. Both Vasgersian and the Detroit Tigers’ play-by-play voice will be on the call elsewhere that same day, Astros-Mets and Reds-Cubs, respectively. Flemming, notably, isn’t listed on Sunday’s slate at all. So, this feels like an opportunity to give McCarthy some runway, given that NBC will need another play-by-play voice for its postseason coverage.
According to Sports Media Watch, the network’s broadcast channel will carry two Wild Card Series games per day this October, with NBCSN and Peacock exclusively splitting the remaining two. For those of you counting at home, that’s four simultaneous windows a day for three straight days — a jump from the previous ESPN-run format — and NBC currently has three established national voices to fill them.
A fourth is conceivably necessary, and McCarthy, whose regular booth with John Kruk in Philadelphia ranked among the sport’s best local broadcasts in Awful Announcing’s 2026 rankings, feels like the most logical choice. Speaking of Kruk, with NBC’s local analyst format, there exists a world where he and McCarthy could call a Phillies’ Wild Card series together, but we could say the same for Benetti with the Tigers, too.
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.