Marlins drop Sielaff, Nelson, two others. Front-runner emerges for TV job

For the third time in less than a decade, the Marlins are replacing their television play-by-play announcer.

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The team on Friday informed Kyle Sielaff that he’s out as their TV voice after two years in the role, according to someone close to the situation. Marlins radio announcer Jack McMullen is a strong front-runner to replace Sielaff, a source said.

The Marlins also dropped three other announcers on Friday: television analyst Jeff Nelson, studio host Craig Minervini and Rod Allen, who worked as an analyst on 70 games on radio last season and appeared on a package of pregame and postgame shows on television.

Former Miami Hurricanes and Marlins first baseman Gaby Sanchez will become the Marlins’ primary television analyst and work the majority of the 155-plus games. The Marlins will begin a search for a second analyst to share the package with Sanchez.

The Marlins used four alternating analysts in 2024 (Tommy Hutton, Nelson, Sanchez and Allen) and three last season (Hutton, Nelson and Sanchez). Hutton retired after the season and the Marlins moved on from Nelson. Sanchez called the fewest games of the three analysts last season, in part because of college baseball television commitments for ESPN and ACC Network.

The Marlins have had considerable turnover on the TV side over the past decade.

Sielaff was promoted to voice of the Marlins on radio when Dave Van Horne retired after the 2021 season, then was promoted to television before the 2025 season, replacing Paul Severino, who held the job for seven years before his contract was not renewed.

Severino, who had the backing of then-Marlins part-owner Derek Jeter, had been hired to replace Rich Waltz, who was the Marlins’ TV voice from 2005 to 2017.

According to a source, McMullen is the front-runner for the TV play-by-play job because he’s viewed as having considerable natural talent as a broadcaster.

The Marlins had McMullen and Sielaff switch roles for a series against the Pittsburgh Pirates in August, and the team was impressed by how McMullen sounded on television.

A 2020 Syracuse graduate, McMullen was hired by the CW Network as their voice of Mountain West football this season. He was the announcer for the Triple A Indianapolis Indians before the Marlins hired him prior to the 2025 season.

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If McMullen gets the TV job as expected, he would work more than half the games with Sanchez, who impressed Marlins management because, in their view, he understands how the game has evolved and his commentary reflects that. His South Florida roots and on-air personality also worked in his favor.

The Marlins likely will look outside the market for a new radio voice if McMullen ends up on television, as expected. There has been no thought to moving Sielaff back to radio, according to a source.

This past season, Allen, former Marlins closer AJ Ramos and Kelly Saco split most of the radio analyst duties alongside McMullen. If the Marlins hire an on-air partner for their prospective new radio voice, it could be someone who’s capable of also doing play-by-play, as opposed to a pure analyst. But that decision hasn’t been made.

On the studio side, Craig Mish will be the pregame and postgame host for all telecasts after sharing the package with Minervini this past season. He’ll be joined by Ramos for most or all of those pre- and post-game shows.

Minervini’s departure at least temporarily ends his long run as a studio host/sports anchor in South Florida. A former sportscaster at NBC 6, Minervini hosted a large package of Marlins games on television for more than a decade and hosted Panthers games on FanDuel before they moved their games to Channel 39 three years ago.

Minervini also was the Marlins’ backup play-by-play TV announcer, calling 15 games in 2024 and three this past season.

The Marlins used several pregame and postgame analysts in recent years – including Allen, Nelson and Ramos – but decided to use only Ramos next season, as part of a broader decision to reduce the size of its overall broadcast roster, which had swelled to an abnormally high number of people (12).

Meanwhile, the Marlins retained Saco and Jeremy Tache; they will continue in their sideline reporter roles. Both Saco and Tache lost their Heat TV roles when the games moved from FanDuel to WPLG 10 this season.

The Marlins did not comment on any of the moves but likely will after new hires are made.

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This story was originally published October 9, 2026 at 3:52 PM.