The Royals are welcoming another face to their broadcast this season, but this addition is a familiar one.
Eric Hosmer will join the Royals.TV broadcasts this year as an analyst in the booth alongside play-by-play announcers Ryan Lefebvre and Jake Eisenberg. Hosmer will be in a rotation that includes analysts Jeremy Guthrie and Rex Hudler.
The pregame and postgame host and analyst will continue to be Joel Goldberg and Jeff Montgomery, along with newly added host and sideline reporter Bridget Howard.
Hosmer’s first game will be on March 13 for the Royals’ Cactus League contest against the D-backs at 8:05 p.m. CT on Royals.TV.
“Our 2014 and 2015 run wasn’t just a championship, but a city finding out what it was capable of,” Hosmer said in a statement. “My teammates and I were lucky to be on that field, but the energy came from the stands with fans buying in. That bond with this city doesn’t expire.
“I was 18 years old when this organization believed in me, and now I get to repay that belief from a different seat. The guys on this roster are building their own story, and we all know what happens when this city believes. I want to be here when that energy comes back around.”
Hosmer spent 13 years in the Major Leagues with four teams -- but he is and always will be a Royal, the team that drafted him No. 3 overall in 2008 and with which he won the '14 American League pennant and '15 World Series. He was a key part of that homegrown core that brought a championship back to Kansas City, and he remains the Royals’ all-time postseason leader in RBIs (29).
Hosmer has joined the broadcast booth at times over the past few years and has been a hit, whether it’s on the pregame show with Goldberg and Montgomery or in the booth with Lefebvre and Hudler. Hosmer’s previous broadcast experience includes appearances on MLB Network and as a pregame and postgame host for games on Apple TV.
As Hosmer has moved past his playing career, talking about baseball became the clearest next step, and now he’ll be able to share his insight on broadcasts with the Royals.