David Cone will call a fair number of Yankees games for the YES Network in 2026 after ESPN decided not to extend his contract.<\/p>\n
The 63-year-old will call around 60 Yankees games in 2026, according to Newsday\u2019s Anthony Rieber<\/a>. That\u2019s a significant jump from the fewer than 40 games Cone handled last year while still working for ESPN, though it\u2019s still below the 90-plus he was doing before joining the national broadcast in 2022.<\/p>\n ESPN confirmed to Front Office Sports earlier this week<\/a> that Cone\u2019s contract wasn\u2019t extended<\/a> as the network reshapes its MLB coverage following the loss of Sunday Night Baseball to NBC. An ESPN spokesperson said the network \u201cappreciate[s] David\u2019s many contributions to our Major League Baseball coverage and wish him the best.\u201d<\/p>\n The departure was hardly unexpected<\/a>, given that ESPN opted out of the remainder of its MLB media rights deal last year<\/a>, sending Sunday Night Baseball to NBC while retaining a limited number of weekday games. Front Office Sports\u2019 Michael McCarthy reported that ESPN wanted to take a \u201cfresh look\u201d at its on-air baseball talent heading into the new deal.<\/p>\n Cone told Newsday the weekday package wouldn\u2019t have meshed with his YES schedule anyway.<\/p>\n \u201cIt only worked for me if it was Sunday night because that meshed with the Yankee schedule,\u201d Cone said.<\/p>\n The expanded YES role helps fill the void left by John Flaherty, who wasn\u2019t offered a new contract after 20 years at the network<\/a>. YES announced in October that Flaherty, along with part-time analysts Jeff Nelson and Dave Valle, wouldn\u2019t return for 2026. The network is moving forward with a condensed rotation of David Cone, Paul O\u2019Neill, and Joe Girardi alongside Michael Kay on play-by-play.<\/p>\n As for Cone\u2019s next move, the former Yankees ace could find himself a coveted free agent as the 2026 MLB season approaches. NBC is the obvious potential suitor given that the network assumed Sunday Night Baseball rights, though Cone told Newsday he\u2019s not currently in talks with NBC. The network has also been linked to recently retired Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw<\/a> as a potential analyst.<\/p>\n Netflix, which will carry MLB\u2019s standalone Opening Day game and the Home Run Derby, could also make sense if Cone wants to maintain a national presence.<\/p>\n For now, Cone told Newsday he\u2019s focused on YES.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m really looking forward to sort of just narrowing down my schedule and doing YES games,\u201d Cone said. \u201cObviously, you always have open ears.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Cone will call a fair number of Yankees games for the YES Network in 2026 after ESPN…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":407991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,214188,591,2704,85,176284],"class_list":{"0":"post-407990","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-david-cone","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-new-york-yankees","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-yes-network"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}