ESPN is bringing more numbers to Sunday Night Baseball. Network President Jimmy Pitaro revealed there will be an alternate Statcast feed for select games in the upcoming season.
Statcasts won’t be new to ESPN. The network has presented the alternate coverage each of the last two seasons during its broadcast of postseason Wild Card games.
This is just the latest turn in the repositioning of Sunday Night Baseball. Last month ESPN announced that Jessica Mendoza would not return to the broadcast in 2020. Instead she will take on an analyst role on studio shows and for weeknight games.
It is also another step in the direction of gambler-friendly content for ESPN. Kyle Koster of The Big Lead points out that as baseball becomes more and more of a regionalized sport, it is unique information and presentations that will give fans from outside the two involved markets reasons to care about a game.
No details are available for how ESPN plans to present the Statscast version of Sunday Night Baseball. In the postseason, the broadcast has come with its own announcing team. That may not be part of the plan if the presentation becomes part of the network’s regular schedule.
