Full Transcript for Breaking Down Massive Marlins.TV Changes for 2027

a lot of aspirations to call nationally televised games, be a part of those type of broadcasts. It's something he told us when he first got the job. But on the flip side, it's Jack McMullen, who is even younger. I want to say your age, Isaac, 27. So he's going into his first year doing TV, play-by-play for the Marlins. Did a series, which I believe was against the Pirates last year. So they swapped Jack and Kyle. putting Kyle and Radio Jack on the TV, and he was great. Marlins loved it, and they think this is a guy who is a rising star. I think we can all agree with that. He's also doing college football in the CW, so he's calling some more nationally televised games as well. And he, before that, did a lot of stuff for the AAA affiliate of the Pirates. He's just completed his second season on the call with Marlins Radio, so making that transition there. Eli, your thoughts on Jack and him getting this promotion? I would call it a promotion into the TV side of things where they already tried this out beforehand, something they didn't do with Kyle, I believe, and it certainly got a lot of good reviews, and now obviously he's stepping into this role. 00:04:30 Speaker 3: Yeah, you kind of touched on it that he's going to be, it's unusual for somebody with his relative lack of experience, or relative lack of age, I should say, to be in this position, but he has had about as much experience as you can for somebody that is still in his 20s in terms of what he did throughout college and then immediately out of college calling primarily baseball, but even some other sports in addition to that. So he's gotten a lot of reps, and the talents with him is so evident in terms of just checking all the boxes you want from a broadcasting experience, from being gifted with the quality of vocal quality that helps a lot, but certainly the vocabulary, the timing, the chemistry with a lot of different partners. Um, so that is one, I don't know exactly how that factored into this equation, but they really put them in a interesting spot in the radio the past couple of years in terms of constantly working with different partners, almost every single, you know, every road trip in homestand alternating between many of the same guys that we're calling on TV as well. Um, so that was a pretty big test in terms of his versatility, able to handle different situations. And, um, it's, he's a guy that was very deserving of, uh, some sort of promotion. The thing is, yeah, even though despite his relative lack of experience, I imagine that the Marlins sense that if they kept him in his current role, that he may have been poached by another bigger employer, whether it's in baseball or otherwise, that he's somebody who would have had other opportunities out there. And I think that, I think this change more reflects their desire to keep him for what they hope is a long time, rather than anything that Kyle did that. I know you guys touched on Kyle, but I can't resist diving in a bit more

about his very unique and notable tenure with the organization. The fact that he was essentially a homegrown Marlins talent in various ways. A guy that started with the team at the very lowest levels. And this was essentially his entire professional career was with the Marlins. Although he has had other opportunities in broadcasting outside of that during in between now and then. the fact that he was with the Marlins from the very beginning so consistently, did so many different things for them, and it was a really refreshing moment when he got the job two years ago replacing Paul Severino. I don't think we should, it was so recent, but I think that felt like a clear celebration, a reward for a guy that had been grinding on the radio side until getting that opportunity. So I just want to co-sign, sending him well wishes as somebody that was so all in on this organization as well. So it's, I think this is more about the Marlins being so blown away by how good Jack has been on the radio side the past couple of years, wanting to do everything possible to hold onto him and figure out the rest around him. So I think that kind of, we should, we should at least acknowledge that this has been somewhat of a polarizing move on when it comes to what we've seen in the reaction from our own audience at FOF, but also the larger audience of all South Florida fans. Um, so, and I think it's been polarizing for, uh, yeah, for understandable reasons. So it's, um, with that being said, I'm very, I'm stoked to see more of Jack. I heard a lot of him already the past couple of years, but to actually see him on TV and understanding realistically that he's going to have a bigger audience than he's ever had before because of this opportunity. Um, I can't help but be over the moon, you know, excited for him getting rewarded like that. Yeah. 00:08:03 Speaker 1: And that's kind of the reason we're doing this, right? to explain to people why the Marlins are making these moves. And, and one thing to note too, is that, and once this is kind of where we'll, I know I'll let Isaac make his last point on Jack, but this is where we kind of transition a little bit into why the others were let go because of how big this Marlins broadcast team was to begin with. It was, it was the biggest in baseball and it wasn't very close and it's tough to manage all those people and to make sure that all of them get a high amount of games. And we'll get into the, into the other guys in a bit, but Isaac, I'll let you make a last point there on, on Jack and slash Kyle. 00:08:35 Speaker 2: I was just going to say, sort of touching on the continuity aspect of it, because, you know, Paul obviously replaced the longtime tenured Rich Waltz, who had been there from 2005 all the way through 2017, and Jeter made that very unpopular decision to just have his own guy. He tagged Paul Severino, and like Eli said, when Kyle was hired, it was a huge celebration for everybody. You know, no disrespect to Paul, but,

you know, Kyle, who was so popular on the radio, and we were just beyond the moon when he was promoted to TV. And then that eventually what brought us to Jack McMullen. And so in that case, it's really worked out very nicely. And the one thing that I take some is with a larger media, the national South Florida media, just sort of making this about money, making this make sort of taking any opportunity they can't to bash the Marlins when they're just doing what they think is right. This is not a money saving move. And the people that are saying these things have maybe watched over one and a half games all year long. And it's just that always infuriates me because, They just take any opportunity to bash the ownership group when this is not even his call either. He trusts people below him to make these decisions. And for anyone that's saying that Jack is not, I'm not going to say he's an upgrade, but Jack is more than qualified to do this job because he's incredible and one of the most talented voices I've ever heard. And I've watched a lot of sports in my life. I was actually watching him do college football the other day. And football is not an easy sport to call, play by play. And he was making it. look as easy as he does baseball so it's incredible and it's just unfortunate that no matter what even when fans were complaining about the broadcast all year long now they sort of changed their tune a little bit so i like to see some consistency going forward there. 00:10:14 Speaker 1: Yeah 100 and that's the big thing too i mean a lot of people trying to say this was a money saving thing. Kind of like what you said, it's quite literally, it's not, I promise you it is not. And I'll tell you this, I don't know what Jack is making, but he's probably gonna be making more. So the morals are going to be adding to his payroll or to whatever he's making, or they're going to be adding to that payroll on that side of things. And, and yeah, I mean, saying that bad organizations do bad things. I, I would just, that's a load of bullshit in my opinion. Um, I don't need to. 00:10:43 Speaker 2: Hear Will Mansour and the Levertard show staff talk about Marlins broadcast when they literally make it clear on their shows that they don't watch the games anyway. So, you know, stay in your lane, man. 00:10:53 Speaker 3: Well, yeah, just to get more specific, the things that make me chuckle the most are the people saying this is a Bruce Sherman issue. Bruce, it's time to sell the team for making decisions like this. And the crazier ones are the ones that say this is a Peter Bendix thing. Like I saw replies like, did Bendix pay you to send out this tweet? And just one thing to acknowledge with Kyle, one thing very distinct about him, especially this past year, is that he was so consistently pro Marlins at every opportunity. Like if anybody was touting the virtues of this organization and the bright future they had, like Kyle was so consistent about that. There's nobody within baseball operations that would have wanted to see a change from that standpoint. And baseball operations had no involvement whatsoever. in that the Marlins have a new director of broadcasting, which explains why they've made a significant change. A fresh set of eyes going into this. That was one that made the call, not just on Kyle itself, but on the analysts as well, that are, that were not renewed if we want to use particular language here. So I think the reason why you see substantial changes across the board and for them trying to streamline operations, give a small, a larger number of games to a smaller number of voices that they want to be featured is is just because this is under new management from a broadcasting standpoint. But this is something that is the bigger decision makers in the organization that usually handle the baseball operations stuff. They stayed in their lane on this. This was not them kind of overreaching. And you can't blame everything on them as people so conveniently want to do. 00:12:25 Speaker 2: And I've said this before, but less is more when it comes to analysts, right? You had Rich and Tommy, long time you had Dave Van Horn and Glenn Geffner. Two, you don't want to have so many different rotating color analysts because it's difficult to build a camaraderie between the play-by-play man and that color analyst. And that's the reason why Rich and Tommy are very few duos in the whole game of baseball that had a better relationship than those two. And same with Dave and Glenn. And so I do think it's unfortunate to see someone like Craig Minervini go. He had been there as long as Kevin's been alive. No, longer since Kevin's been alive. Almost my full lifetime as well. Minervini's been there and I understand the move you know but I would have liked them to you know Tommy retiring I would have liked them to keep someone from the old days right someone that older fans can resonate with a little bit but again you have younger talent available like Kelly and Jeremy and they do a great job as well so you can't and Craig Mish as well so you can't really blame them but it's always tough to see guys that you know as a kid growing up you're watching and they were a staple in the Marlins for a long time and no longer. 00:13:31 Speaker 3: There anymore Jet Ski Rentals of South Florida. 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FISHONFIRST and that gets you a 10% discount off your next booking. Again, that's 305-990-2192 or online at sfjetskyrentals.com. 00:14:22 Speaker 1: The other names that were not renewed were Jeff Nelson, who did a majority of the games i want to say 95 of the games 90 of the games rod allen who did the pre and post game show as well as radio and then um who else there was one more um oh craig minervini who is who just completed his 25th season with the organization um obviously i think each one has their reasons i think a lot of people may remember but rod allen and craig minervini both had their roles reduced from 25 to 26 neither of them were on the rate of rod didn't do any tv uh actual analyst work while craig minervini didn't do any radio um and both of them were more limited to the pre and post game show craig did a little bit of sideline he i think called most of the games during the 12 game losing streak as much as i hate to say it was during that time but i do remember that um the minervini curse yeah the minervini curse yeah exactly but Isaac, you know, Rod was a huge fan of Fish on First, always was a great guy to talk to, was around a lot, regardless of, you know, the reduced role, still took the job and did it to the best of his ability. And Craig Minervini was always around as well. I mean, around a lot. And, you know, when I saw his reel of his memories with the team and thinking the Marlins, it was, you go all the way back to the 2003 World Series, I believe, and he was there. So, This is a guy who it sucks to always see guys leave and not have their contracts renewed. But, you know, those are two guys that definitely stood out in terms of a little bit of the writing was on the wall just because of the reduced roles. And just because, again, I mean, the Marlins had a huge TV broadcast and needed to limit the amount of people that there's most of the times it's two analysts and a pre and post and a sideline. And that's kind of what the Marlins are trying to do and trying to just get back on the level that, you know, that these other teams are on. And unfortunately, Rod and Craig and Jeff are unfortunately part of the cuts that they're making to get to that point. 00:16:25 Speaker 2: I remember this is a year after they made another stubborn decision in losing Jessica Blaylock. And I thought she was incredible as well. So from what I understand in terms of Rod and Jeff Nelson, who I thought Nelly was fantastic. I thought he was arguably their best color guy that they had. But I guess they sort of want a younger player voice there sort of seeing what they're seeing in analytics and he i guess he wasn't just as analytically driven as someone that they'd like to have there in that position some disagreements but disagreements are healthy like our chat likes to say and um we'll have to see who they replace them with like i'm more so speaking about rod and and craig if anyone and so i'm very intrigued to see who goes on radio i thought

that could have been i don't know they would have wanted to demote kyle and put him back on radio quote unquote for the demotion part but I would have liked to see him stay in the organization somehow, but yeah, Rod was a great guy. Always, always clamber to be on our show. 00:17:22 Speaker 3: Shit. 00:17:22 Speaker 2: We never were able to do that, unfortunately, but awesome guy. Always what we would talk managerial decision. We talked baseball for a while in the elevators and it was a lot of fun and we're going to miss having him around. 00:17:33 Speaker 1: Yeah. And then with Jeff, it's kind of what Isaac was saying where he was by far the most, not anti-analytic, but definitely didn't bring up the numbers as much as a, for example, like a Jack would do, or I guess, shit, even Gabby Sanchez, right? But Eli, what do you think they do with that analyst role? I think a big reason why Gabby stayed, too, to be honest, or they kept him was because he is a former Marlin, and that's one thing that they lacked a little bit, was having those former Marlins on. They brought in AJ in 25. I mean, Jeff Nelson was a part of these Peacock broadcasts, but they always promoted him as a former Yankee, which is the case, but you know, he was the best one. So they always got him on the Peacock broadcast. But usually you get a former player from each side. And that's kind of the trend I noticed with most of those broadcasts on Peacock. And for the Marlins, it was always Jeff Nelson. I think Gabby Sanchez did one of them, which was the Pittsburgh game. But again, I think having the former Marlins side of it and a guy who was around and has been around the organization, I guess somewhat helps. But just your thoughts on what they could do to fill that analyst role. They'll go younger. Do you think they'll go older? And I know you have one guy in mind for the radio spot. So if you want to give your thoughts on, on him and why he should be the guy there. 00:18:45 Speaker 3: I'll start quickly on, on Jeff Nelson, who I, I liked him quite a bit on the broadcast as kind of covered. He wasn't a, he wasn't stat cash savvy. He would kind of openly mock some of things that came up on stack cast, including like a pitch type labels. I remember like he, One of his things is he didn't really believe the sweeper was a distinct pitch. When he was talking about somebody's sweeper, he'd just consistently say, it's like a different form of a slider. Yeah, things like that, that he would have his bit of an old man yelling at clouds thing. But I thought it was like, I think he genuinely loves baseball, and he really does obsess over these little details. I learned a lot about pitching just from listening to him. I think he brought up some really unique points that I didn't hear from anybody else in this analyst group. So I thought he added value to the broadcast. I thought he had good chemistry with Kyle. So that's an interesting aspect. I wonder how that actually may have tied into it a

little bit. I think, generally speaking, it was not an ideal fit, the fact that he was still stubborn about some new age things. But in particular, he worked well with Kyle. And if Kyle wasn't going to be here, then maybe they felt that he wouldn't be in his very best position to succeed as an analyst moving forward. That might have been part of it. Anyway, so I wish him luck. It was awkward, the fact that in recent years, he was not only more well-known as a former Yankee, a former Mariner, but he was calling Yankees games. He was part of the Yankees analyst rotation as recently as 2025. This past year was the first year that he wasn't part of the Yankees rotation. He was literally calling Yankees games and Marlins games in the same season. So that was a bit awkward, the fact that I think more people would have recognized him even in the moment for calling games with a different team in the same role. That's something to keep in mind. Yeah, you brought up Gabby. That'll be interesting. I don't care whatsoever about the former Marlin connection personally. I wonder how many other people do care a little bit more. Gabby, of course, spent the vast majority of his major league career with the Marlins, and there aren't a ton of players that can say that. So I think that's something I would bring to your attention when it comes to that. There's only so many candidates who are primarily known as Marlins with some major league success and who are actually competent and experienced broadcasters. Gabby certainly has experience. He's been doing various types of broadcasting almost since the moment he retired so he's been able he's been a familiar voice certainly and somebody that that lives in Miami and has experience with Jack as from doing as being part of that broader radio rotation as well so that may have played a part in it that they liked how those two had the rapport that they had with each other and in terms of filling the the radio spot so when they found Jack they found him at the AAA level I think the My assumption is that the low-likely candidate would be somebody that's been calling upper minor league games to this point so far. Now, we should acknowledge that they've been sort of teeing up Scott Kornberg to make that leap. The fact that Kornberg has been one that each of the past two years at least, maybe three, I think just the last two years, he's filled in for Kyle. No, filled in for Jack, I should say, briefly on the radio side. Um, during those appearances, I think it must've been three years. 00:21:56 Speaker 1: No, he did 24. He did 24, 24. Yeah. 00:21:59 Speaker 3: Because I do remember the first time it was filling in for Kyle when he was still in the ring. So I think it's going back three years where he's consistently been part of their schedule late in the season. Uh, and I've been called up from Jacksonville and that, and then a whole lot to him, uh, that was a big milestone for him. And so he's at the highest minor league level

in the same way that Jack was, uh, Me personally, I'm very fond of Eric Bramer. He's been their double-A broadcaster for the last five seasons, ever since the Marlins, almost ever since. They were affiliated with Pensacola starting in 2021. Bramer joins Pensacola in 2022. So he calls the vast majority of their games, and he also manages their broadcasts. His father, for people that aren't aware, Dick Bramer, was a legendary broadcaster with the Minnesota Twins for decades before recently retiring. I don't know if people knew that, but he was specifically on the radio And yeah, I think Eric has awesome talent and he checks so many boxes in terms of what makes an entertaining broadcast. I've been watching a ton of minor league highlights the past couple of weeks. I essentially binge things from top Marlins prospects at the end of every season to make sure I have a very clear idea in terms of what these guys were showing. And that means I've been getting hours and hours of his calls from notable Marlins prospects that passed through AA this past season. And it just reiterates he's awesome down there. And the excitement level that he has for double-A games is, I think, really unique. Listen to other minor league broadcasts. So for him to be that invested and that knowledgeable about the players that he covers at that level, it just speaks to, I think, it makes me really optimistic in terms of how that would translate to the major league level. And so I hope he's a candidate for that process, and we'll see how that plays out. So it seems while they have already Circle Jack, unofficial, but all but done in terms of filling that TV spot immediately. I'm curious to see exactly how long the radio process plays out. There's no rush if they don't want to. I hope they just do a thorough job and have some continuity there because, again, that's now been a lot of upheaval there in the past few years. We'd love to have some long-term continuity on the TV side to match it up on the radio side as well would be even better. 00:24:19 Speaker 1: And I think one interesting thing. 00:24:22 Speaker 2: We blame Jeter for a lot of things and rightfully so, particularly baseball moves. But him just saying that he wants to get rid of Rich Waltz solely because he wanted his own guy and tagging someone like Paul Severino. Rich would probably still be here. I don't see any reason to think that he wouldn't still be here. um along with tommy in his last season last year and it's just look at all that's happened one of the few things that the marlins really had to flex was that they had one of the best radio booths and one of the best tv booths in all of major league baseball and obviously david homer is getting up there glenn was fantastic rich and tommy were fantastic it's just so frustrating to me how it could have been the same had jeter not wiped his ass with everything that they had made but it's always gonna be frustrating me but we move. 00:25:04 Speaker 1: On Going back to the radio situation, I think what makes someone like Scott and Eric two good candidates too is kind of what the Marlins want to do, which is kind of use those minor leagues as the foundation for what they want to have at the big league level and call those guys up. And who better to have those, you know, call those games than the guys who know them very well and know their skillset or whatever it is, know them more personally, like Scott and Eric, who know the guys in double and triple A who are knocking on the door. So Definitely two guys that make a lot of sense. I also think they would go with a younger guy. Jack, again, I believe was the youngest radio guy in baseball. Now he's the youngest TV guy. So maybe they want to go that route again. And that's kind of where Eric maybe would be a better choice than Scott. But again, both of them are great. Rooting for both of them to potentially get the job would be internal hires. And yeah, I guess we'll wrap up here unless you guys have anything else in terms of this broadcasting stuff. 00:25:59 Speaker 3: No? 00:26:00 Speaker 2: No? 00:26:01 Speaker 1: Alrighty then, we'll wrap it up here with Fish and Filter, episode 130 from Isaac, Eli, and myself. We'll see you guys all next week. Peace out, and as always, go fish.