Stephen Nelson to serve as Joe Davis’ primary fill-in on Dodgers broadcasts

The Dodgers added another voice to their television broadcast team, hiring Stephen Nelson of MLB Network to call more than 50 games for the upcoming season.

Nelson, a 33-year-old Southern California native with experience calling both MLB and NHL games in addition to other sports TV work, will essentially back up lead play-by-play voice Joe Davis on the club’s SportsNet LA broadcast package.

Davis has been the Dodgers’ primary voice since succeeding Vin Scully in 2017, but has also had to cut back his Dodgers schedule recently while taking over as Fox Sports’ lead play-by-play broadcaster for MLB and serving on one of the network’s top NFL broadcast crews.

In addition to Davis and Nelson, the Dodgers said Friday that Orel Hershiser, Nomar Garciaparra, Eric Karros, Jessica Mendoza, Tim Neverett and Dontrelle Willis will all return as part of their SNLA broadcast team.

Like last season, the Dodgers are expected to rotate their color analysts through the booth over the course of the year.

A graduate of Marina High in Huntington Beach and Chapman University in Orange, Nelson was a college intern for KTLA and Fox Sports West before beginning his TV career at a local station in Oregon.

He was hired by Bleacher Report in 2014, where he covered various sports as a host and broadcaster.

In 2018, Nelson went to work at the jointly-operated MLB and NHL Networks, where he called games for both leagues while also taking over as co-host of MLB Network’s long-running “Intentional Talk” show alongside Kevin Millar.

Nelson has also done work for NBC Sports, YouTube and Apple TV+, serving as a play-by-play voice for the latter’s nationwide MLB package last season.

“It’s impossible to convey the emotions that come with this opportunity,” Nelson said in a news release about joining the Dodgers. “This isn’t simply coming home. This isn’t simply being an announcer for a professional sports team. This is The Los Angeles Dodgers. It’s the best organization in baseball for so many reasons and I can’t wait to be a tiny part of it and its best-in-class production team.”

Nelson, who is Japanese American, is set to become the only Asian American play-by-play announcer working for a MLB team, according to the Dodgers.

“We are thrilled to be adding such a dynamic personality in Stephen,” Dodgers chief marketing officer Lon Rosen said in the club’s release, “and think he will fit in seamlessly with our incredibly talented broadcast team.”