The Ford C. Frick Award victor will return to the FSSD booth for one final season as the Padres’ “primary play-by-play voice”, though the club has not released the number of games he will call.
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The voice of the Red Sox’ television broadcasts on NESN for the last 15 years, Orsillo will soon be announced as the new voice of the San Diego Padres, according to a source close to the talks. Orsillo expressed surprise and disappointment to learn earlier this season that the Sox were not renewing his deal for 2016, announcing plans to hire Dave O’Brien, the ESPN broadcaster who has been part of the organization’s radio team for the past nine years. NESN and the Red Sox to a larger extent are the reason that this has gotten blown up as much as it did, obviously there was going to be a few backlash amongst fans after the decision was made but the way they have handled it has been borderline embarrassing.
Padres CEO Mike Dee is very familiar with Orsillo’s work, as he worked as an executive for the Red Sox from 2002 to 2009, and the team was clearly looking for a replacement for its 80-year-old announcer. Orsillo, 46, was let go by the New England Sports Network for reasons that have not been disclosed.
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The Orsillo-Padres partnership has been in the works for several weeks. The 46-year-old will have the opportunity to broadcast a few national games for FSSD’s parent company. Next season, however, Orsillo will make appearances on both radio and TV to ease him in to the role as Enberg says his farewell. After 15 years in the booth for the Red Sox, the team surprisingly decided not to bring him back. With him and Mark Grant holding down the TV broadcasts after 2016, Padres fans should have no issue getting used to hearing a great baseball broadcaster in Orsillo. He will be joined again by color analyst Carlos Hernandez for an expanded schedule of telecasts on Fox Deportes San Deigo.
