Sportsnet has parted ways with Ben Wagner, the radio voice of the Toronto Blue Jays for the past six seasons.
Sportsnet said it “decided not to renew (Wagner’s) contract for next season” in a statement released Wednesday. The Blue Jays rights holder also thanked the radio broadcaster and wished him well.
Plans for the future of the radio broadcast will be announced prior to the 2024 season, the network said.
Wagner joined the Blue Jays radio broadcast in 2018 after previously spending 11 seasons calling games for the team’s Triple-A affiliate in Buffalo.
Wagner’s time with Sportsnet was not without obstacles. During the pandemic-shortened 60-game season in 2020, Wagner did not travel to road games and instead called games from a Toronto studio.
The following season, games were simulcast on TV and radio when the Blue Jays played their games in Dunedin, Fla., and Buffalo for the first four months of the 2021 season, leaving Wagner without a consistent role on the broadcast. A separate radio broadcast only returned for the season’s final two months when the team returned to playing at the Rogers Centre.
Meanwhile, full travel never resumed following the pandemic, as Wagner largely called road games off a screen. Wagner also did not have a consistent broadcast partner since 2021, instead handling the radio call either solo or with a rotating cast of guests and analysts beside him.
Sportsnet is owned by Rogers Communications, the Toronto-based telecom company that also owns the Blue Jays and Rogers Centre.
This one sucks for me. I’ve been a big fan of his on the radio broadcast. It’s hard to replace Jerry Howarth, but he did a really good job in my opinion. They treated him like shit the whole time he was there. Another clear L for Rogers.