While a Ben and a Shulman will be calling Toronto Blue Jays games on the radio this season, neither Ben Wagner nor Dan Shulman will be.
This week, Sportsnet announced that Ben Shulman, the son of Dan, would take over as the Blue Jays’ primary radio play-by-play broadcaster. Shulman takes over for Ben Wagner, whose contract was not renewed after the 2023 season.
The younger Shulman, a Syracuse graduate, called 31 Blue Jays games last year and also served as the play-by-play voice of the Fort Wayne TinCaps, the high-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres. Chris Leroux joins him on the radio as an analyst.
While it hasn’t been announced, the Toronto Sun reports that “it is expected” the radio broadcast will not travel with the team and instead continue to remotely call road games. In 2021, the Blue Jays axed their radio feed and instead opted for a simulcast of the television feed. Despite defending the decision early in the 2021 season, the team reversed course and restored a traditional radio broadcast. In 2022, Wagner didn’t travel to road games in the early half of the year before the Jays reversed course in the second half of the season. Last season, Wagner again didn’t travel to road games and called games from the studio.
Sportsnet (again) reversed course for the playoffs, but Toronto’s Postseason was over after just two games and one run scored in Minnesota.
Toronto’s Sportsnet television broadcast crew remains unchanged. Dan Shulman returns as the Blue Jays’ play-by-play voice, with Buck Martinez and Joe Siddall sharing the analyst role. Hazel Mae and Arden Zwelling serve as reporters for the broadcast.
About Joe Lucia
I hate your favorite team. I also sort of hate most of my favorite teams.
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