NORTH PORT, Fla. – Bally Sports South and Bally Sports Southeast on Monday announced its broadcast team for the upcoming Braves season.
The networks will air 149 of the 162 regular-season games, and their coverage will feature 11 different broadcasters for in-game coverage, the pregame show and the postgame show.
The headliner for 2023: New play-by-play man Brandon Gaudin, who will replace Chip Caray. Over the offseason, Caray departed to call St. Louis Cardinals games. Gaudin grew up a Braves fan and has long dreamed of sitting in this chair.
Gaudin will pair with Jeff Francoeur, who spent 12 years in MLB, in the broadcast booth. Francoeur is entering his sixth season as the lead analyst on Braves telecasts.
Then there’s the return: Tom Glavine, the Hall of Fame pitcher and Braves legend, will return to the booth after a year away. This will be his 13th season as a Braves analyst. He stepped away to spend time with his mother, who died in December. Glavine is excited to return.
Peter Moylan is back in the booth for the second consecutive season. Moylan, the former Brave, will also continue appearing on Braves LIVE, the network’s pregame and postgame show, for a fifth consecutive year.
Nick Green, who played in the majors for eight seasons, will serve in a multitude of roles. He’ll be in the booth for select games, but will mostly appear on the pregame and postgame shows while also serving as the in-game reporter at times. This marks Green’s ninth season for the networks.
Kelly Crull enters her fourth season as the primary reporter on Braves broadcasts. Lauren Jbara, who primarily covers the Hawks for Bally Sports, will work her first season as a reporter on Braves telecasts, joining Crull and Green. Last season, Jbara filled in as a host of Braves LIVE for certain games.
For the second straight season, Treavor Scales will be the primary host of Braves LIVE. Along with Scales and Jbara, Ashley ShahAhmadi will also host some pregame and postgame shows in 2023.
When watching Braves LIVE, you’ll be able to hear from four analysts in 2023: Moylan, Green, Kris Medlen and Gordon Beckham. Medlen, the former Braves pitcher, played five of his eight seasons in Atlanta. Beckham played for the Braves in 2016 as part of his nine-year MLB career.
Paul Byrd, who worked on Braves telecasts as an analyst and an in-game reporter the past several years, is stepping away for personal reasons with no timetable for a return.
Brian Jordan, who played 15 seasons in the big leagues and worked for Bally Sports, will not return for 2023. Bally Sports was interested in bringing back Jordan, but he chose not to return.
Bally Sports will begin its regular-season coverage on March 30, when the Braves play the Nationals in Washington.
Diamond Sports Group, which operates Bally Sports, recently announced it filed for bankruptcy. But Braves fans should still be able to watch the games.
“Diamond Sports Group’s bankruptcy declaration is an unfortunate development that we have been expecting,” MLB said in a statement. “Despite Diamond’s economic situation, there is every expectation that they will continue televising all games they are committed to during the bankruptcy process. Major League Baseball is ready to produce and distribute games to fans in their local markets in the event that Diamond or any other regional sports network is unable to do so as required by their agreement with our clubs.
“Having streamed live games on MLB.TV for more than 20 years and produced live games for MLB Network since 2009, we have the experience and capabilities to deliver games to fans uninterrupted. In addition, we have hired additional seasoned local media professionals to bolster our capabilities in anticipation of this development. Over the long term, we will reimagine our distribution model to address the changing media climate and ultimately reach an even larger number of fans.”
Bally Sports is available throughout Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, and central and western North Carolina. The available providers are AT&T U-verse, Cox, DirecTV, DIRECTV STREAM, FuboTV, Spectrum and Xfinity. (FuboTV is a new inclusion this year).
