Paul Severino, the television play-by-play announcer for Miami Marlins baseball since 2018, revealed that he will not be returning to the airwaves next season. As a result, the team will hire a new broadcaster to fill the role for the first time in seven years. The decision breaks up the broadcast team that contained Severino with a rotation of analysts that included Rod Allen, Tommy Hutton, Jeff Nelson and Gaby Sanchez.
“It was brought to my attention today that I will not be invited back as the TV voice of the Miami Marlins for 2025 and beyond,” Severino said in a statement on Friday. “I gave the broadcast and the audience everything I had, every night, for seven years.”
Severino was previously a host at MLB Network for parts of eight years before departing the league-owned entity to call Marlins games on television. Before his stint with MLB Network, he worked in his hometown of Bristol, Conn. as a host for ESPN studio programming. Rich Waltz had served as the previous voice of the Marlins before he was let go after the 2017 season, remaining with the organization through its move to loanDepot Park (formerly known as “Marlins Park”) and rebrand.
“The Miami Marlins and FanDuel Sports Network have decided to go in a new direction with our television play-by-play announcer,” both entities said in a statement. “Together, we will begin a search for our new TV voice ahead of the 2025 season. We thank Paul for all the hard work over his tenure and wish him and his family the best.”
Within his written statement posted to X, Severino thanked executives Steve Tello and Brett Opdyke for taking a chance on him in 2018. Additionally, he expressed gratitude for producer John Sulser and the rest of the broadcast crew that he saw on a daily basis at the ballpark. Severino also thanked the fans for welcoming him to the Marlins broadcast team and his family for their support throughout the year. Throughout his seven years on the air, he called more than 1,000 Marlins games spanning spring training until the end of the regular season.
“I pride myself on my work ethic,” Severino said. “These sorts of jobs are precious and it’s the only type of job I ever wanted. I tried to treat every game like it was my last. I prepared the same way on April 1st as I did on October 1st. Joe DiMaggio once said, ‘There might be a kid out there watching me for the first time… they deserve my best.’
“I tried to approach every broadcast with that mindset. I did my best to keep things light and fun. As I said many times on our broadcasts, the audience works or goes to school all day, they don’t want to hear us complaining. Baseball is supposed to be entertaining. Hopefully, that came across.”
Diamond Sports Group recently obtained approval to emerge from Ch. 11 bankruptcy after 20 months, currently holding broadcast rights to 27 professional sports teams between Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League. The Sinclair subsidiary reached a deal with Amazon to market its FanDuel Sports Network content on Prime Video and a naming rights contract with FanDuel Corp. In addition to the Marlins, the enterprise will broadcast regional games for the St. Louis Cardinals, Los Angeles Angels, Detroit Tigers and Tampa Bay Rays next season.
