When reports came out last November that Toronto Blue Jays long-time announcer Ben Wagner didn’t have his contract renewed and was let go by Sportsnet, the news turned out to be a huge disappointment for many Jays’ fans. After all, Wagner had been the lead radio broadcaster for the Blue Jays since taking over the duties full-time from the legendary Jerry Howarth back in 2018.
For those that were worried whether Wagner could end up finding a job elsewhere, he has successfully landed a new gig with the Jays’ AL East Divisional rivals Baltimore Orioles for the upcoming season. The contract has Wagner working both on live radio and television broadcasts for the team.
This presents the next chapter for Wagner’s career, as it all began when he called games for the Jays’ Triple-A affiliate Buffalo Bisons over 11 seasons. From there, he got his well-earned promotion to take over as the radio voice of the Jays in 2018 and had been a mainstay with the team for over six years. Following his release from his duties last year, the Jays have recently hired Ben Shulman, who is the son of current television play-by-play announcer Dan Shulman, to take over from Wagner for the 2024 season.
At least for Jays’ fans, they will now have the special opportunity to relive Wagner’s voice once again whenever the Jays and Orioles meet again in the coming year. That is, of course, if they can somehow manage to tune into the Orioles’ live broadcasts legally on game days. Here, we wish Wagner all the best in his career and his future endeavours ,and thank him once again for the great six years he had enlightening our lives with his astute commentary every Blue Jays baseball day.