Kolko to replace Carpenter as Nationals’ TV play-by-play broadcaster: Reports

The Nationals have found their new play-by-play broadcaster. Longtime MASN reporter Dan Kolko has been tapped to replace the retired Bob Carpenter in Washington’s TV booth, according to multiple reports.

The Nationals have not officially announced who will broadcast their games. 

Kolko has been a part of Nationals broadcasts since 2012. While working at MASN, he served as a dugout reporter while providing color and on-field analysis.

As Carpenter approached his retirement last season, Kolko occasionally filled in as a play-by-play announcer for TV broadcasts and received mixed reviews from die-hard fans. 

News of his fresh role received a similarly lukewarm reception. 

“Dan is awesome. Love the guy,” Nationals fan Chris Landon wrote on X. “He is a Nats man through and through, but for all his skill set, he is not a starting television play-by-play guy. At least not yet.”

The 2026 season marks a new era for Nationals broadcasts. It will be the first year since 2005 — the franchise’s first year in the District — that Carpenter will not be calling games. 

The upcoming campaign will also be the first since the Nationals ended their partnership with MASN.

The franchise announced this month that its games would air on a new platform — Nationals.TV — produced in partnership with Major League Baseball.

Washington’s 162 regular-season matchups will be available to stream online through the league’s direct-to-consumer platform and will air on cable and satellite TV for fans in the Washington region.

The Nationals have not confirmed what channel the games will air on or which cable and satellite providers will carry the new network. That information will be released later, the franchise said.

The team confirmed that Nationals.TV streaming subscriptions could be purchased through the MLB’s website or app beginning in February.

The Nationals are the seventh team to partner with MLB for its local broadcast rights, a number that has grown the past two years as regional sports networks struggle to stay afloat. All nine MLB clubs that were airing games through the FanDuel Sports Network canceled their contracts this month.

The Nationals’ new, MLB-produced broadcasts will feature increased access and special elements like a wire cam and shallow-depth angles in right field, the league said.