Who will fill the shoes of Buck Martinez for Blue Jays?

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The Blue Jays broadcast booth has a rather large hole in it now that Buck Martinez has decided to retire his dulcet tones.

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So who joins Dan Shulman in that booth?

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The Jays have a ready-made replacement in the ever smooth Joe Siddall. But what if Rogers goes outside the box? Who else could be in line?

It makes total sense that Siddall makes that lateral move from his role with Blue Jays Central to full-time analyst beside Shulman, but in the interest of covering all our bases, here are a look at a few more in-house possibilities to fill the role along with some more detail about Siddall.

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Joe Siddall

Joe Siddall would appear to have the inside track on this job with 12 seasons under his belt already with Sportsnet. He spent four years on the radio side before moving over to join the television side in 2018 as an analyst on Blue Jays Central with Jamie Campbell. Of course, viewers are already well aware he’s spent plenty of time partnering with Shulman too, spelling Martinez when he was off for health reasons or simply needed a rest. He filled that role in each of the past two seasons. Siddall’s playing career covered 13 seasons as a catcher first with the Montreal Expos and then stints with the Marlins, Tigers, and Red Sox. Parts of four of those 13 years were at the Major League level. A Windsor native, Siddall accepted a football scholarship to Central Michigan as a quarterback before eventually making the jump to baseball.

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Kevin Barker

Kevin Barker is a former Major Leaguer turned radio analyst and co-host of Blair and Barker covering the Blue Jays and all things baseball. He joined Sportsnet as co-host following the departure of Gregg Zaun. Barker, a first baseman/DH, was a third-round pick of the Milwaukee Brewers in the 1996 MLB draft. Initially the Brewers thought Barker would be their long-term answer at first base until Richie Sexson showed up. Barker would go on to play with four Major League clubs with the Padres, Blue Jays and Reds joining Milwaukee on his resume before he completed his playing career with two years in the Mexican League. Barker spent a handful of games with Shulman doing Jays games last season. Barker is married to Sportsnet’s sideline reporter Hazel Mae and lives in Toronto. He is a native Virginian.

Caleb Joseph

Caleb Joseph has been at Sportsnet since 2022 when he joined to work as an analyst with both the Jays’ radio and television broadcasts. More recently he’s spent time serving as a sideline reporter of sorts, particularly through the Jays playoff run alongside Hazel Mae. Joseph’s career claim to fame came during the 2014 season when he got substantial playing time with Matt Wieters being shut down following Tommy John surgery. Joseph started slow but for a stretch in August he was the one of the hottest hitters on the planet homering in five consecutive games. The Nashville native played for three different MLB teams from 2014 beginning with Baltimore, moving on to Arizona and ending with the Blue Jays.

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Chris Leroux

Chris Leroux is coming off his first full season of broadcasting serving as the analyst on the radio side for the Fan 590 broadcasts. He’s been focused almost solely on broadcasting for the past four years but began back in 2018 doing pre- and post-game colour. All told, Leroux’s professional playing career spanned 12 seasons, spending parts of six seasons in the Majors with the Marlins, Pirates and Yankees. He also spent a year in Japan. Leroux and play-by-play man Ben Shulman handled the radio duties for the Jays on The Fan. Leroux was born in Montreal but grew up in Mississauga.

mganter@postmedia.com

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