Friday Bantering: Sportsnet 2023 Broadcast Team Announced

Happy Friday. I’m on day 10 of dry February. It hasn’t been a problem. I did find a pretty good non-alcohol beer. If you would like to donate to the Canadian Cancer Society, here is the link.

Sportsnet has announced their broadcast team for the coming season. Dan Shulman will be doing more of the games as play-by-play man. YAY. Matt Devlin will fill in on occasion. Buck Martinez will work most games as analyst, with Joe Siddall filling in when he’s away.

Jamie Campbell and Joe Siddall will do the Baseball Central stuff, with Caleb Joseph sometimes filling in.

And the big change is that Arash Madani will no longer be doing the ‘sideline’ stuff. Hazel Mae and Arden Zwelling will be doing that job.

And Ben Wagner is still working by himself on the radio side. I’m not a big fan of the one-man baseball radio booth. But they didn’t consult with me.

The team has announced that Bo Bichette signed for three years getting $33,600,000. They haven’t told us how it will break down by year.

I’m glad they aren’t going to arbitration. I think avoiding going in front of the arbitrator is a good move if at all possible.

Rosters for the WBC are out.

The Canadian team will include:

Catchers: Kellin Deglan, Bo Naylor (Guardians), Andrew Yerzy

Infielders: Freddie Freeman (Dodgers), Edouard Julien (Twins), Otto Lopez (Blue Jays), Abraham Toro (Brewers), Damiano Palmegiani (Blue Jays), Jared Young (Cubs)

Outfielders: Owen Caissie (Cubs), Denzel Clarke (A’s), Tyler O’Neill (Cardinals), Jacob Robson

Blue Jays playing on other WBC teams:

• Alejandro Kirk - Mexico
• José Berríos - Puerto Rico
• Vladimir Guerrero - Dominican Republic
• Yimi Garcia - Dominican Republic
• Jesús López (from our minor league system) - Nicaragua
• Spencer Horwitz - Israel

The Padres have signed Yu Darvish to a six-year, $108 million contract. He’s 36 now so he’s signed through his age-43 season.

Teams are signing guys to long-term contracts beyond the age you would expect a player to continue to be in the league to minimize the impact on their competitive balance tax.