Last week, ESPN fired former Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher Curt Schilling after Schilling shared a Transphobic meme on Facebook.
ESPN announced Wednesday that another former Philadelphia Phillie, outfielder Raul Ibanez, will join their network in Schilling's slot.
Former Major League Baseball All-Star Raúl Ibañez has joined ESPN as a baseball analyst. In this new, multi-year agreement, Ibañez will primarily provide commentary for Baseball Tonight on ESPN. He will also serve as an analyst for select games.
In addition to MLB studio programming, Ibañez will contribute analysis to SportsCenter and other news and information programming.
Though they didn't specify which of those roles he will be in, the release noted that Ibanez will appear on ESPN this evening ''as part of ESPN's Wednesday Night Baseball coverage''.
This isn't Ibanez's first time appearing on television, as he served as a studio analyst for FS1 during the 2015 MLB season, before leaving that role to accept a position in the Los Angeles Dodgers' organization. The news release mentions Schilling's position with the Dodgers, but doesn't specifically mention whether Ibanez will continue in that role. Travis Durkee of Sporting News says that Schilling will continue to work with the Dodgers in addition to his work with ESPN.
Ibanez played for the Phillies from 2009-2011, including making the National League All-Star team in 2009, a season in which he eventually hit a career-high 34 home runs.
Tim Kelly (@TimKellySports) is managing editor of Philliedelphia.com, focusing on news and features.
