Popular Marlins announcer a front-runner for slot in team’s revamped game analyst rotation
After dropping analyst Todd Hollandsworth last October, Bally Sports Florida is moving toward using a rotation of analysts, and popular team broadcaster Tommy Hutton has emerged as a front-runner for one of those game analyst slots, a Bally Sports management source said Wednesday.
The Marlins have used only one game analyst each season for 19 of the past 20 years.
But Bally and the Marlins are now expected to share the package among multiple analysts, with Hutton now a favorite to land one of those gigs.
Cliff Floyd, J.P. Arencibia and Gaby Sanchez are among candidates for the other slots in the rotation.
The analysts will split the 150-to-160 game package alongside returning play-by-play man Paul Severino, who will call most or all of the games.
Hutton, 75, was insightful, witty, critical when appropriate and immensely popular during his long tenure as the Marlins TV analyst from 1997 to 2015.
But his contract wasn’t renewed after that season, leaving Marlins telecasts diminished.
Credit Bally Sports management for looking to bring Hutton back to the booth, where he teamed with Rich Waltz for much of his tenure.
And credit the Marlins for suggesting to Bally - then Fox Sports - in 2018 that they bring Hutton back for a studio role, a position he has held during the past four seasons, splitting duties with several other former players.
Hutton isn’t looking to do 162 games at this stage of his life but said in October “if Bally and the Marlins were interested in a veteran to fill in with a minimal schedule, I would take the phone call.”
Bally is not ready to make any public comment on the Marlins’ analyst position.
According to the Bally official, a rotation of analysts has become appealing to Bally because there are several worthy candidates.
Floyd, who works for MLB Network, played 17 years in the majors - including six with the Marlins. He won his only World Series with the Marlins in 1997.
Arencibia, a former catcher and first baseman, hit .212 with 80 homers and 245 RBI in a six-year career with Toronto, Texas and Tampa. He last played in 2015.
Sanchez played first base for both the Miami Hurricanes and Marlins and hit .254 with 61 homers and 266 RBI in a seven-year big league career. He last played in 2014 with Pittsburgh.
Last season, Arencibia and Sanchez called games on radio and filled in for Hollandsworth on TV.
Following the 2021 season, the Marlins dropped Hollandsworth after five years as the team’s TV analyst.
The Marlins have used a rotation of analysts only one year this century - in 2016, after Hutton’s departure and before Hollandsworth’s hiring. That season, the Marlins used Eduardo Perez, Al Leiter, Preston Wilson and Jeff Conine.
Bally Sports Florida and the Marlins last year began a new multiyear contract that increased the team’s rights fee from $18 million or so annually to what is believed to be more than $50 million annually.
This will mark the second significant change on the Marlins’ broadcast front this offseason. Dave Van Horne, the team’s radio voice for the past 21 years, said in January that he is “essentially retiring” after declining the team’s offer to return for about 20 games.
Glenn Geffner is expected to announce most Marlins games on radio next season alongside a rotation of analysts that could again include Arencibia, Sanchez and Kelly Saco.
Kyle Sielaff will call the games that Geffner doesn’t.
This story was originally published February 16, 2022 at 8:58 PM.
