David Cone will not be returning to The Worldwide Leader.
The retired former Cy Young winner Cone won’t return to ESPN next season, Andrew Marchand of The Athletic reported this week. The news comes as ESPN moves from “Sunday Night Baseball” to weeknight game coverage instead.
Cone, now 63 years old, had spent the last four years as a color commentator for ESPN on “Sunday Night Baseball” broadcasts. He worked in the booth alongside play-by-play announcer Karl Ravech and analyst Eduardo Perez.
But ESPN is moving into a new era with NBC now taking over the “Sunday Night Baseball” broadcast rights beginning with the 2026 MLB season. Marchand also notes that ESPN is interested in adding former NL MVP Joey Votto to help call a handful of games.
Cone pitched in Major League Baseball from 1986-2003. The righty hurler made five All-Star teams, won five World Series titles (one with the Toronto Blue Jays and four with the New York Yankees), and led Major League Baseball in strikeouts three times. Cone also took home the AL Cy Young Award in 1994 and notably threw a perfect game in 1999.
Fortunately, Cone still has a couple of other cushy broadcasting gigs as he serves as a color commentator for the Yankees, both locally on YES Network and nationally on Amazon Prime. But Cone’s ESPN era is officially over after an eventful run during which he produced some notable on-air spectacles.
