The Minnesota Twins’ TV broadcast crew has at least one new face joining them for the 2026 season. Seven-year MLB catcher Anthony Recker will be hopping on the pre- and post-game show for several series this season.
Twins fans will recognize Recker’s name from his time on MLB Network the last few years. However, the team acquired him in a trade with the Atlanta Braves, sending LHP Jaime García and Huascar Ynoa to the Braves in 2017. The Twins never called Recker up from Triple-A Rochester and retired after spending the 2018 season with the Reno Aces, the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Triple-A affiliate.
Aside from being a visiting player in the early 2010s, Recker hasn’t spent much time in Minnesota, but Target Field is a ballpark he’s always looked upon fondly. He was ecstatic for his first chance to play there with the Oakland A’s in May of 2012, only to have them tell him they were sending him down to Triple-A before leaving for the team flight.
“I had my suit on and everything,” Recker recalled. “They called me over right as we were about to leave the ballpark to go to the plane, and they sent me down to Triple-A. So I wasn’t able to go, and then I got back there in 2013, was excited for that. Kind of an interesting path to working with this team and having it be an opportunity there.”
The opportunity for Recker to join the Twins broadcast crew came about from his time at MLB Network. Many teams across the league ended their Regional Sports Network contracts with Diamond Sports Holdings, now known as Main Street Sports Group. The league has now taken on producing and distributing broadcasts for half the teams, giving player analysts at MLB Network more opportunities with teams, regardless of how familiar they are with them.
“A general conversation with MLB Local Media led to a path of incorporating one of MLB Network’s analysts into our Twins TV Broadcasts on a regular basis,” said Twins Director of Broadcasting Andrew Halverson. “Anthony Recker stood out and showed up really well on screen. He is well spoken, articulate, and his passion/knowledge for the game is easily recognizable through his work.”
Recker was encouraged by the crew he will be working with in Minnesota.
“Speaking to some of the executives, they put me in touch with the team over there in Minnesota,” he said. “[I] went through the process with them, and it seemed like a really good fit. So they seem like a great crew, really good people, and I’m excited to work with them.”
Anthony Recker has been covering baseball nationally, but he has previous experience at a regional sports network. He spent five seasons on the SNY Mets broadcast crew following his retirement, the team he spent three of his seven MLB seasons with.
“I had a little bit of experience talking about multiple teams [with SNY],” he said, “and then I did do some radio work for the Mets and also did a couple of their games too during spring training and during the regular season. So I did get a big mix of experience there, and then my transition over to MLB Network allowed me to expand on those experiences.”
At MLB Network, Recker built on the skills he developed in his first broadcasting gig with the Mets. The structure of shows such as MLB Tonight allows them to run without a script every night, creating a more spontaneous broadcast with a few outlines of topics.
It took some adjustment when Recker first joined the MLB Tonight analyst rotation, but it helped him prepare for an opportunity like the one he’s now taking on here in Minnesota.
“When you’re working MLB Tonight’s desk, and you’re covering games, and you’re moving in and out,” he said.
“It almost feels like you’re kind of at the ballpark announcing these games, but as you’re moving from ballpark to ballpark you just kind of have to be nimble and be able to kind of roll with things, go with the flow, and I think all that experience led me to a point where I was capable and able to fit into any market and understand any team.”
Aside from being a visiting player in the early 2010s, Anthony Recker hasn’t spent much time in Minnesota. His only game at Target Field with the Mets in 2013 came in early April, with temperatures at a high of 34 degrees. He’s looking forward to bringing his wife and three sons back this time around, with much better baseball weather.
Recker’s first series on the pre/postgame desk will be April 17-19, when the Cincinnati Reds are in town to face the Twins.
“[I’m] Just looking forward to them having the opportunity to see Minnesota,” he said. “See the ballpark, meet some of the team, maybe or whatever we can do, and hopefully become a part of the Minnesota Twins fabric as well.”
“Anthony will fill a variety of roles for Twins TV in 2026, and he won’t be the only MLB Network personality to do so,” said Halverson. “We look forward to supporting our daily efforts with a national perspective from the Network and incorporating Anthony’s talents into our broadcasts.”
