Jason Benetti, Anthony Rizzo, Joey Votto, and Matt Borzello
Sept. 28, 2026
MODERATOR: Good afternoon and thank you for joining us on our NBC Sports MLB Wild Card conference call.
Beginning tomorrow with our pregame show at 1:30pm ET, we have exclusive live coverage of all four MLB Wild Card series. Continuing how we’ve handled games all season on Sunday Night Baseball and Sunday Leadoff, each game will feature an analyst from each of the competing teams’ broadcast crews — so that’s eight experts, one for each of the eight teams playing in the four Wild Card games, as well as an “Inside the Pitch” analyst offering perspective from a different location in the ballpark.
Joining us on today’s call, is Jason Benetti, the voice of NBC’s Sunday Night Baseball and the Detroit Tigers. Jason will call Red Sox-Yankees in primetime, at 8pm ET on NBC & Peacock.
Next, we have analyst Anthony Rizzo, who hit .360 and secured the final out in the Chicago Cubs’ World Series clinching victory in 2016. He will join Jason, Joe Girardi and Lou Merloni on Yankees-Red Sox. Anthony will provide our “Inside the Pitch” analysis from the batter’s perspective, and will also join host Bob Costas during the pregame show from Yankee Stadium.
Next, we have Joey Votto, the 2010 National League MVP who helped the Cincinnati Reds to the postseason four times. He’ll be serving as our “Inside the Pitch” analyst for the Phillies-Braves NL Wild Card series at 2pm ET on NBC & Peacock.
Finally, we have our senior producer Matt Borzello, who has led production of Sunday Night Baseball this season after working on our Sunday Leadoff coverage in 2022 and 2023. Matt will be producing Red Sox-Yankees.
MATT BORZELLO: We’re really excited to, once again, be involved in the MLB Postseason. NBC obviously has a rich tradition with Major League Baseball, having aired almost 40 World Series and numerous other AL and NLCS games.
As far as our production plan goes, all four series will be treated with the same higher levels that we’re used to seeing all season long on Sunday Night Baseball.
Each series will have an “Inside the Pitch” analyst. Anthony Rizzo here in New York, Joey Votto down in Atlanta, Clayton Kershaw in San Diego, and Adam Ottavino will be in Houston. Just like in the regular season, they will go deeper on at-bat situations as the game dictates.
Just like in the regular season, our booth will consist of local analysts from each club. This was very successful for us all season long. They all brought a wealth of knowledge of their team, helped take the national viewers further inside their club, what was going on in the clubhouse, what fans of the city were saying, and most importantly, in the postseason, they’ll be there for the situational baseball, such as who is coming into the game out of the bullpen or off the bench and exactly why they’ll be used in that spot. These guys know that better than anyone out there.
JASON BENETTI: When you hit playoff time in Major League Baseball, after 162 games, we know that those individual moments become things that people will remember forever and always. Look no further than a guy like (Yankees manager) Aaron Boone and the big swing that he had in his career. (Dodgers manager) Dave Roberts and his stolen base.
There are managers and players alike in these series who have had moments that have changed baseball, and we have the firepower at NBC Sports, which I’m excited about, to detail those sequences, those moments, and those things that are happening that people are going to talk about for a long time
So, it is a joy to be up in the booth with Lou (Merloni) and Joe (Girardi), who know the Red Sox and Yankees as well as anybody. Anthony Rizzo played in the Yankees-Red Sox winner-take-all in 2021 and hit a homer.
The stories that we can tell with this format and through NBC Sports’ care of covering baseball and the level of detail and beauty that the company does, I could not be more excited. But the thing that I’m most excited about is those moments that are going to happen that we have the artillery in terms of knowledge and information to bring you at home.
ANTHONY RIZZO: For me, to be a part of the NBC crew is just an amazing opportunity. I’m super excited.
The Wild Card round is built for urgency. There’s no long runways. Every single managerial decision will be right under the gun, under the microscope. Every bullpen move matters. Every at-bat literally shifts an entire series.
For us on the broadcast side, that’s going to create a fun, intense, fast environment where we might say, “Why is this guy coming in to face this guy?” There’s going to be so many different situations happening. And we will be on the edge of our seats because this rivalry with New York and Boston is different.
It means everything to the fans. I know personally being in it how much it means to the fan bases. The Red Sox and the Yankees do not like each other on the inside, and I’m just excited to bring that to the national stage and to be able to call the game after watching so many of these games growing up, playing in these games, playing in a World Series, winning a World Series, and playing in this rivalry.
Now to be able to paint pictures to fans watching this broadcast is something that I do not take for granted, because I remember being a kid watching these games and listening to all these announcers and being on the edge of my seat at every moment.
I’m looking forward to bringing that to the national audience.
JOEY VOTTO: I will say I’m like a fan right now because I feel a certain way about the series I’m going to be covering, Atlanta and Philadelphia in Atlanta.
In 2020, we played a three-game series in front of an empty stadium, and we lost 1-0, 1-0. I feel pretty strongly about both clubs. First the knockout against the Braves in the COVID year and then my very first playoff experience was against the Philadelphia Phillies, sweep also.
I think that I will be, not necessarily biased, but I think I’ll be sitting on the side of the fan during the experience, and I have the good fortune of wearing the uniform and being able to speak from both the Major League players’ experience but also coming from the fans’ experience.
So, I’m tuning in as much as everyone else. It just so happens that I have a microphone.
Q. Obviously, these are games on broadcast television for Yankees-Red Sox and Phillies-Braves. When you talk about the exposure for Major League Baseball for so many years, a lot of the games have been on cable. How important do you think it is to have the kind of exposure that these games are going to have coming up on regular TV on NBC.
JASON BENETTI: My first thought is, Major League Baseball and NBC -- obviously NBC’s love of baseball is the first thing I think of. But just me personally, as a kid, I remember sitting and watching the World Series on broadcast television. I remember sitting and watching playoff games on NBC. That is a glorious memory for me.
I enjoy when as many people as possible can watch Major League Baseball because this sport is a beautiful one.
As we know, streaming is becoming more prevalent across the sports landscape. And we’ve had Sunday Night Baseball on Peacock and NBC Sports Network as well. The games that are on Peacock are also on NBC Sports Network this postseason.
Q. This is about the Yankees-Red Sox series. Anthony, specifically about your former teammate Aaron Judge. I know his status is kind of up in the air, but what are your thoughts on kind of the year he’s been through? I know it’s been affected by injury for most of it. And if he can play, how much of a factor can he be in the upcoming series?
ANTHONY RIZZO: I think he could be a big factor if he’s healthy enough to be on the roster. I know he wants to be in there. It’s Yankees-Red Sox. This is a massive rivalry. You cannot take any playoff game for granted, right? You don’t know when you’re going to be back.
If he’s in the lineup I expect him to be a huge factor. Aaron Judge standing in the batter’s box is Aaron Judge standing in the batter’s box. Doesn’t matter if he’s on one leg, it doesn’t matter if he has one arm, he is a threat. And he will be respected by every pitcher that’s facing him.
So hopefully for the game he’s in there, and hopefully he’s at whatever the full strength he’s at and can stay healthy through the longevity of these playoffs. But him being in there would be a game-changer.
Q. Matt and Jason, John Kruk is going to be calling the Phillies series. He’ll be your local Philly guy. He’s called a handful of games with you guys this season. I was curious what you guys thought were his strengths as a broadcaster, and why did you bring him back? And are you going to shove him in a suit again for these two games?
MATT BORZELLO: I’ll answer the suit question. Yes. Jason, over to you for the rest.
JASON BENETTI: I think I’d probably object to the verb choice, because I didn’t see that. And I don’t know that I want to. But here’s the thing about John Kruk. Everybody knows him for the viral moments or walking off the field in Baltimore in his final game as a .300 hitter.
John Kruk is a lethally great baseball analyst. He sees things in advance. He has fun. He does the entire range of everything you’d want from an analyst. He’s phenomenal at the job, and he happens to be a great personality and a really good partner, too.
And you never know if he’s just slightly pulling one over on you. You just never fully know. And that is a joy to be around. But he’s, at the core, a really strong, great baseball mind.
Q. Is there anything special about (John Kruk) that works well with the pairing with CJ (Nitkowski), and then Joey’s (Votto) also going to be part of that broadcast?
JASON BENETTI: I think having done a game with both of them earlier this year, CJ and John, they each have their own strengths, but they both do the whole thing. CJ and John are both fun to be around. They’re both thoughtful baseball analysts. And they do the entire range.
I’m going to be in New York -- my television is going to be on at 1:58 p.m. or whenever the coverage starts. But whenever the coverage starts, John and Joey and CJ are on my television together, along with Matt Vasgersian, I have no idea what’s going to happen because CJ and John was fun in its own right, but adding Joey Votto, who is a walking novel thought about baseball in the world, I don’t know if Earth can handle it. I’ll be honest.
JOEY VOTTO: I’m just glad I don’t have to work with Jason this time.
JASON BENETTI: Makes two of us. (Laughter).
Q. You’ve got the Astros making the playoffs as the first full-season team to have a non-winning record. We’ve seen teams in the recent years like the Nationals, Braves, Diamondbacks, Rangers get in there and go on a run. When we talk about the Astros here, is it all about getting in the dance and having a chance? And what is the feeling in your eyes for a long playoff run? Because obviously their roster has some flaws in terms of depth and pitching especially, starting pitching, that is.
ANTHONY RIZZO: For me, they get in -- they have experience, right? Jose Altuve has been a White Sox killer his entire career, it seems like. They have Yordan (Alvarez), who’s probably going to win the American League MVP. They have a legitimate back-end bullpen that limits the game to pretty much six innings, probably five innings in short series because they can extend these guys and go to them a lot sooner.
The scary part about these teams is they’re built for these short series. So, the Houston Astros are built for a three-game series, a five-game series. They may get tested in a seven-game series, but when you win a series and you can get real momentum, that’s everything in October.
Because these teams that are sitting out for five days, they lose a little bit of momentum, especially in the American League. They’re going to be playing two games in a week.
So, if you can build real momentum in these Wild Card games and ride that to a deep October run, I believe Houston has that. They have the veterans. They’ve won before. They’ve been battle-tested, there’s young guys on that team that can rely heavily on the veterans, too.
Q. Is there an X factor that you see with the Astros, anybody that stands out?
ANTHONY RIZZO: For me, it’s Josh Hader. They hand the ball to him with a lead, the game’s over. That’s a good feeling. I have to imagine -- I’ve never managed, but I have to imagine that’s a good feeling as a manager.
Q. Joey, you obviously played for one of the smaller-market teams for your entire career. There’s been a lot of apprehension about what can happen this offseason between the owners and the players. At the same time, in the postseason, we have a bunch of small-market teams in there, four teams in the bottom half of the league in the payroll. Why do you think the teams like the Rays, the White Sox and the Guardians have been successful this season? And what do you make of their success given the fighting that’s been happening between the league and the players as we head toward the offseason?
JOEY VOTTO: I don’t want to comment on the relationship between the league and the players just because I’m not on either side, and I don’t have intimate knowledge of what either side is pulling for.
But the organizations you mentioned, I think culturally they’re constantly sending the message that we’re going to just move on unless we’re getting a player at 25 or 50 cents on the dollar.
And I think that the more you can build that habit, not only at the Major League level, but also inside the front office, inside of every single department, it’s about moving on to the next best option. And I think that that’s for the Brewers, the Guardians clearly -- the Rays are maybe the kings of doing that, and the other teams are trying to copy it.
Q. Jason, I’ve got to ask you about the moment two days ago where Justin Verlander pitched his last game in Detroit. I’m sure that was a special moment for you. I’m wondering what’s going to stick with you about that moment? And did anybody tell you the plan where Genevieve ran onto the field before it happened?
JASON BENETTI: No, I did not know. There were only a couple people, in my understanding, who knew. (Tigers manager) A.J. Hinch knew. A member of the Tigers staff who was helping coordinate with Kate (Upton) and Genevieve and Bellamy and the family. And that was it, in my understanding.
I don’t know if you’re going to see anything more emotional than that at a sporting event in a family sense for quite some time. And it struck me -- I went to sleep, like, almost immediately when I got back for an hour and then woke back up and was thinking about this for hours afterward because it was just such an emotionally charged day.
But I think that was in part the sort of reckoning with the idea that generations pass.
So, there are Tigers fans in the stands who, when they first saw Justin Verlander pitch, they were new parents and now their kids are 20 or 21. Or you stop and you think, well, I saw that first start with my dad on the couch and now he’s gone. Right?
A lot changes in 20 years in all of our lives. I think for anybody watching that, there was this moment of sort of contention with mortality almost that life flows and continues and never stops. But to see Justin Verlander’s evolution from a pretty irascible pitcher, from everything I’ve heard, to dad of the year in Major League Baseball and how much he cares for his kids and his wife and his family, I just think it was ultimately extraordinarily touching. But I think it hits something in everybody generationally.
Q. Matt, do you have insight into the assignments? Just because it was interesting to see Clayton Kershaw assigned to the Padres-Cubs?
MATT BORZELLO: That was more we had Anthony call quite a few games on “Inside the Pitch,” so we put him here in Yankee Stadium again, his attachment to the Yankees as well. Joey’s done “Inside the Pitch” a few times, so we put him on that game in Atlanta.
And then it was Clayton (Kershaw) and Adam (Ottavino) at that point. Both have done an excellent job all season. But it was no actual attachment there. Obviously, Clayton’s done the Dodgers games, but it’s more just kind of where the series fell to put him out there.
Q. Jason, obviously a lot of fans are used to getting to the playoffs and oftentimes being frustrated because they don’t have the local voices calling the games and NBC is doing something different. In that regard, I’m curious what impact do you think that is going to have for games you guys are calling in Boston and New York, and then how you’re thinking about working with Lou (Merloni) and Joe (Girardi) to kind of get that rivalry, that Boston-New York flavor, but also in a congenial way in the booth?
JASON BENETTI: First of all, to have guys who are embedded with the team, to have analysts embedded with the team next to me, but also for Matt Vasgersian, Dave Flemming, and Tom McCarthy, the play-by-play announcers is, number one, an honor, but, number two, it’s a godsend informationally, because the fans know these people, not only as dedicated craftsmen who love to do games and care about the team, but there’s also a trust factor from the analysts that we have across the board in the homes of everybody watching these games.
And knowing that from the other side, right, as a regional announcer as well, eight years with the White Sox and now three with the Tigers, you get to know people over 162 games times what the average game time is somewhere in the 2:35 range, like, 162 times 155 minutes, you’re talking weeks that we’ve all spent with each other.
Family-wise, we’re basically common-law married to the analyst, jokingly. But you spend so much time with these people in your houses that there’s a trust factor that develops. You get to know them. And I think the fun of what we do is, you put them with not only a different play-by-play announcer, but even more importantly other baseball analysts.
Like, Joe doesn’t do games every day with Lou and Anthony Rizzo. And Lou’s the same with Anthony and Joe. That conversation -- every game this year we have sparked each other in some way into a conversation about a situation, a story, something that we would not have thought of individually, or even in my home booth with the Tigers or their home booth.
So, I think the greatness of it is the expertise. And the spark is that when you’re sitting at dinner with people, you don’t know what you’re going to end up talking about, and you leave to go home and you’re, like, ‘how did that even come up?’
And we have a lot of ‘how did that even come up’ moments, and I’m thrilled to do it for specific situations in games. Joe Girardi is an extraordinarily thoughtful, World Series-winning manager. Lou Merloni made sure he had a career by caring about the details.
And Anthony Rizzo, players and managers alike, who played against him and with him, will tell you is one of the most perceptive baseball people in the country. And same goes for analysts and “Inside the Pitch” folks -- like, Joey Votto, again, just sees the world through a different prism. We just have a lot of artillery. I know I’ve said that a couple times.
But the thing that’s most exciting is you never know where the conversation is going to go. And as they bounce things off of each other, and we do in the booth, there are fireworks in an informational and hopefully fun sense, too.
Q. I want to talk about the “Inside the Pitch” innovation there. What was the origin of that idea? And what highlights or evolutions do you guys see in that over the season, and what kind of instructions are you giving to guys like Joey and Anthony in that role heading into the playoffs?
MATT BORZELLO: The origin would be with NBC Sports’ executive producer Sam Flood [introducing] “Inside the Glass” for hockey and “On the Bench” for the NBA. That’s where it started, getting us closer into the action. Anthony and Joey can attest, you’re down on the field, you’re next to the dugout. You’re picking up more than you would in the booth.
In Joey’s last game, immediately there was an issue with the first baseman’s glove. He was 15 feet away from it. It gets you inside the action more than when you’re up in a booth. I’ll let Joey and Anthony speak to some of their experiences.
JOEY VOTTO: If Anthony and I were teammates, hypothetically, we’d see something on the field and we could see it carrying into the later innings, or even upcoming games, weeks, what have you, whether it’s a swing, something going on with someone’s swing, something going on with health-related, all these little nuances, we see and we want to give that to the fan at home.
And most importantly, there’s going to be an impact in the game that night with what we see. And the best thing we can do is articulate it as quickly as possible. And I found at times sitting adjacent to the benches that it feels like I’m still playing, but I’m clearly not. I have to be able to share what I’m seeing in real time.
ANTHONY RIZZO: For me, very similar to what Joey said. You’re picking up things down on the field maybe from the dugout, whatever dugout side you’re on, conversations players are having that you don’t get to see in the booth -- them talking strategy, them talking hitting. Whatever it is, just paying attention to the game at the field level is such a different experience.
When these big moments happen and we’re right there, boots on the ground, we can paint that picture, I feel like, with a lot more passion and a lot more energy than maybe being up in the booth.
It’s been a lot of fun getting to learn and grow and being next to the dugout and being a former player, so you can really put yourself in that situation.
JOEY VOTTO: The last thing I’ll say, and I think Anthony will agree with me, but I can’t tell you how many times we’ll be in the middle of a game and we’ll look at each other and we’ll say to ourselves, ‘oh, he’s about to get locked in.’ Or we’ll say to ourselves, ‘he’s hurt.’ And then not a week later, a series later, you’ll see it in the news. And I think, Anthony, you’ll agree with me, but that’s what we can offer.
ANTHONY RIZZO: No doubt. It’s just that it’s the eye. You just know from playing for so long, you can just see guys’ tendencies, mannerisms, the way they’re going about it, we’re right there. So, it’s a real advantage I feel for the broadcast to be able to portray that to the fans and the audience.
Q. Anthony and Joey, could you speak about your development as broadcasters and what the adjustment was like following your playing careers?
ANTHONY RIZZO: For me, the development has been a learning experience, but it’s been a joy, it really has. To get the call from NBC Sports last year saying they were interested in this role for me, I was all ears. On the national attention, NBC owns Sunday night with baseball, football and basketball.
To be part of an iconic crew, you hear Bob Costas’ name, Joey Votto, Clayton Kershaw, and most importantly to me is getting to work with Jason Benetti, and what a pleasure he’s been. He’s the ultimate professional as far as helping, teaching, and guiding. And the behind-the-scenes crew with Bruce Cornblatt. I cannot give him enough credit talking to him on a weekly basis on how to use my voice and use it with good energy and paint that picture to fans and teach the fan base something they don’t know about.
So, it’s a learning experience, and I feel like this is a great challenge as far as baseball for us was always the easy part, not results-based, but that’s what we knew. And now getting to talk baseball, it’s our language. It’s another language for me. But doing it the right way and doing it in a way where fans really want to hear what you have to say is such an art in itself. And I respect the hell out of it.
JOEY VOTTO: I agree with Anthony regarding Jason and Bruce Cornblatt. I’ve personally found that I’ve had to adjust the way I communicate in everyday life with the objective of minimizing the “ums,” maximizing the positives, getting to the point, and being as concise as possible while also giving something of meaning. And I’m finding it’s quite difficult.
And each and every time I get the on-camera reps, I’m sensing I’m getting better. But the wonderful part is, inside of NBC, we have people that let us know that you’re just getting started, you haven’t even scratched the surface. So, I’m fortunate to work for NBC in that regard.
JASON BENETTI: Can I add something here real fast before we all go. The thing that excites me most about watching the professional athletes is the development factor. Because I think they’re a great example for everybody that you take whatever you are and you make yourself into something a little bit better every day. And baseball affords that opportunity more than any other sport. It’s a mental battle against yourself to be as consistent as humanly possible, to be great. And great doesn’t happen tomorrow but great can start happening tomorrow.
And what I see with these two guys, you would expect that from who they are and what their careers were -- Anthony, the World Series champion; Joey is going to be in Cooperstown -- they’re both so dedicated to the craft of getting better.
And 99 percent of the ways that you can’t see and their answers won’t encapsulate, these guys are always looking for feedback and always trying to get five percent, 10 percent better. I wouldn’t say that if I didn’t mean it. That kind of thing is really important to me.
I’ve just been so impressed to see them port those skills from on the field, over 162 games of improvement, to this craft. It’s really impressive.
--NBC SPORTS--
