NBC will have some well-known names in its studio when it returns to covering Major League Baseball this year.
The network is finalizing deals with Clayton Kershaw, Joey Votto and Anthony Rizzo to join its broadcasts for 2026 and beyond, according to Front Office Sports.
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Collectively, the group brings playing experience that includes a combined 49 years in MLB with 20 All-Star nods, 6 Gold Gloves, 3 Cy Young Awards, 2 MVPs, 2 Roberto Clemente Awards and 4 World Series titles. All three were reportedly sought-after names in the broadcast world this winter, and NBC got them all.
It’s unclear how the exact roles will break down here, though it’s easy enough to imagine a studio show with the trio like what Fox Sports has with Derek Jeter, David Ortiz and Alex Rodriguez. Kershaw, who retired from MLB last year but still plans to pitch in the 2026 World Baseball Classic, is reportedly expected to work a limited schedule.
Votto last played in MLB in 2023 and has long been known as one of the game’s most thoughtful players. Rizzo last played in 2024 and officially retired last September, ending a career that saw him play several years in two big markets and help end the Chicago Cubs’ 108-year World Series drought.
Clayton Kershaw will be back in MLB in 2026, in a different role. (Photo by John McCoy/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
(Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
NBC’s lengthy tenure as an MLB broadcast partner ended in 2000 when Fox took over the league’s biggest games, but the network struck a deal last year that will see it pay nearly $200 million per year for “Sunday Night Baseball,” formerly of ESPN, and a “Sunday Leadoff” package, as well as a slate of games on July 5.
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The Peacock streaming platform will be the exclusive home of many of those games, as its broadcast schedule lays out. Peacock also streamed those “Sunday Leadoff” games in 2022 and 2023.
NBC, already the home of the NFL’s “Sunday Night Football” and the Olympics, has been betting more on sports than ever before lately, between this MLB deal, a recent reunion with the NBA that ran a similar playbook and its 10-figure agreement with the Big Ten that began in 2023.