Jessica Mendoza joins Sunday Night Baseball in ESPN shuffle

After bursting onto the major-league broadcasting scene in 2015, Jessica Mendoza is about to become a fixture on ESPN’s flagship baseball broadcast.

ESPN is making some significant changes to its announcing teams for the 2016 season and the biggest news is that Mendoza is joining Sunday Night Baseball on a permanent basis. Aaron Boone is also a new addition to the Sunday Night team, while Dan Shulman remains as the play-by-play voice.

Mendoza, a longtime softball star for the U.S. national team, had worked the Women’s College World Series (a role she’ll continue to fill, at her request) and received a few other assignments on the network before getting the opportunity to be the first woman to sit in as an analyst for a major-league game broadcast on ESPN last August. She then stepped in for Curt Schilling on Sunday Night Baseball for the final month of the 2015 season when he was suspended. She was also on the call for the AL wild-card game.

[Elsewhere: New MLB rule will require teams have full-time Spanish translators]

The rest of ESPN’s reshuffle goes as follows: Schilling takes Boone’s spot on the Monday Night broadcast and former Sunday Night running mate John Kruk returns to Baseball Tonight.

John Wildhack, ESPN’s executive vice president for programming and production, said of Mendoza in a statement: “Jessica made history in 2015, and most importantly, showed she belonged in a prominent role on ESPN’s MLB coverage. Her stellar analysis and undisputed credibility, combined with the instant chemistry she formed with booth-mates, made it clear she has earned this spot on Sunday Night Baseball going forward.”

Mendoza impressed us with her knowledge and passion for baseball during her handful of appearances in the booth last season and it only stands to reason that she’ll get more comfortable as she calls more games. She’s still going to have to deal with unwarranted negativity because she’s a woman – just take a look at Twitter or remember the Atlanta radio host who ranted against her in the postseason. 

But she’s already proven she can handle that. 

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Israel Fehr is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter. Follow @israelfehr