MLB personality Alanna Rizzo has a new home as the 2025 MLB season begins working with NESN and the Boston Red Sox.
Rizzo’s future looked uncertain after the cancellation of MLB Network’s High Heat, where she had starred with Chris Russo for the last several years. The veteran reporter and commentator has been working with the crew at Foul Territory and with the Toronto Blue Jays on SportsNet north of the border but will now also have a role locally with one of baseball’s biggest teams.
NESN announced on Wednesday that Alanna Rizzo would be joining the network in a multitude of roles including alternate broadcasts as well as hosting and reporting for Boston Red Sox games.
“NESN, New England’s premier sports network, announced Wednesday that Alanna Rizzo, a seven-time Emmy Award-winning sports journalist, has joined NESN as a general sports reporter and analyst. Her duties will include co-host of the network’s alternate broadcast, “Unobstructed Views,” presented by Blue Moon, occasional host and sideline reporter for NESN’s Red Sox coverage, and other general reporting,” the announcement said.
“Rizzo, who will make her NESN debut in May, has more than 20 years of experience as a baseball journalist. Currently a contributor to ‘Foul Territory,’ Rizzo has also provided national baseball commentary for ‘Blue Jays Central’ on SportsNet and served as host for TBS alternative baseball programming in 2023 and 2024. From 2021 through 2024, she was a regular contributor alongside Christopher Russo on MLB Network’s ‘High Heat,’ where she interviewed players, coaches and industry insiders while breaking down league-wide storylines,” NESN added.
Rizzo had said she was “open to possibilities” when High Heat came to an end last season and co-host Chris Russo was vocal about his hopes that she would be able to land on her feet because of how much the show had meant to her.
Combining a streaming platform like Foul Territory with local coverage of the Boston Red Sox is a decent return for Rizzo after being with MLB Network so long. And it’s also emblematic of where the industry is going with combining local and streaming opportunities in place of working in house for the league network.