NESN adds some familiar faces to its Red Sox broadcast lineup for 2026

NESN is adding some new faces to its roster of Red Sox broadcasters and analysts this season. All should be familiar to New England baseball fans. Rich Hill and Manny Delcarmen – both former Red Sox pitchers and Massachusetts natives – will be part of the network’s cast of studio analysts, as will Worcester native and former Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi and another ex-Sox pitcher, Matt Barnes. Delcarmen, who grew up in Hyde Park, was previously a NESN Red Sox analyst from 2018-20. Hill, from Milton, said in the offseason that he has no plans to play this year after a 21-season Major League career that included four stints with the Red Sox. Otherwise, NESN’s lineup remains mostly intact from a year ago. Dave O’Brien returns for his 20th season overall calling Red Sox games and his 11th with NESN. Lou Merloni is back as the primary color analyst, with Will Middlebrooks and Kevin Millar also rotating in the role. Jahmai Webster returns as the primary in-game reporter. NESN did not confirm how many games each analyst is expected to call among the network’s 145 Red Sox broadcasts in the upcoming season. Tom Caron anchors pregame and postgame coverage, with Middlebrooks, Jim Rice, Lenny DiNardo, and Jonathan Papelbon returning as analysts. Adam Pellerin and Alanna Rizzo will also host at times, and both – as well as Caron – will occasionally serve as the in-game reporter. Mike Monaco will return as a fill-in play-by-play voice on NESN and WEEI. On the radio side, Middlebrooks will join play-by-play voice Will Flemming on the majority of flagship station WEEI’s broadcasts. Merloni will work some games on the radio, but his main role is with NESN. DiNardo will be the analyst for the games when Middlebrooks isn’t in the radio booth. Sean McDonough, who has called approximately 30 games annually for the past few years, will do so again this season. Deven Marrero, a studio analyst the past two seasons, is not returning. Chad Finn can be reached at chad.finn@globe.com.