Seattle Mariners pitcher Ryan Rowland-Smith throws during a game against the Los Angeles Angels on July 17, 2010, at Angel Stadium. Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Ryan Rowland-Smith Discusses Transition to Seattle Mariners Broadcast Booth

Originally posted on Seattle Mariners on SI
By Teren Kowatsch | Last updated Mar 23, 2025 9:30 PM ET

The Seattle Mariners are set to begin the 2025 season against the Athletics on March 27 at T-Mobile Park. The Mariners made few additions to the team in the offseason, much to the chagrin fans. But the broadcast team calling games will look significantly different than it has in years past.

Longtime announcer Dave Sims left to join the New York Yankees broadcast booth. On the television side of things, Aaron Goldsmith will return as the main play-by-color commentator and Rick Rizzs will lead the radio booth.

Joining Goldsmith will be a rotating crew of Angie Mentink, Jay Buhner, Dave Valle and Ryan Rowland-Smith.

Rowland-Smith pitched for Seattle from 2007-2010 and retired as a player in 2017 after a stint in the Australian Baseball League. He played for Australia in that year's iteration of the World Baseball Classic.

That same year, Rowland-Smith joined ROOT Sports, of which the Mariners are the priority owner. Rowland-Smith has appeared on pre and post-game shows and has had his own programming on the channel. He will call opening day with Goldsmith.

"The fact I get to do opening day next to an absolute pro like Aaron Goldsmith, the word is grateful," Rowland-Smith said in an interview Sunday at Seattle's opening week warm-up event. "Very grateful. And I'm just gonna work super hard to make sure it sounds great and fans enjoys it."

Rowland-Smith has experience as an on-air analyst with MLB Network and called games for the World Baseball Classic qualifying rounds.

Another epic @WBCBaseball event! Congrats to Nicaragua, Chinese Taipei, and a massive thank you to our entire crew Sam, Darien, Scott, Carlos Dan, Jason, Patrick and everyone at @MLBNetwork. Massive thank you to my super talented partner in the booth Tyler Maun for making this… pic.twitter.com/m6gmOhtFEO
— Ryan Rowland-Smith (@hyphen18) February 25, 2025

Rowland-Smith has knowledge of the team from his several years with ROOT and was down in spring training for several days.

He put his analyst cap on during his interview Sunday and offered his perspective on potential breakout or bounce back players for 2025.

"If you get a (Victor) Robles, (Randy) Arozarena and Julio (Rodriguez) for six months, and they're at 80% capacity at what they're capable of doing, and you factor that in for six months, you're in a good spot," Rowland-Smith said. "The other guy who I was watching and I was just like, 'man, he looks different, there's just a different feel to this guy, different confidence,' is Mitch Garver. ... If he can just get back to what we saw a couple years ago and he pushes himself up in that lineup a little bit, he's gonna be another impact player."

Fans will be able to see more analysis from Rowland-Smith and Goldsmith at 7:10 p.m. PT on March 27.

This article first appeared on Seattle Mariners on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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