Long-time MLB insider Jeff Passan has started a new video podcast. In a cluttered field, this podcast stands out.
Maybe unsurprisingly, I catch up with Passan on the phone as he’s at the airport on a layover. The self-declared “I drop bombs” guy on Twitter/X has been working the baseball beat for over 20 years, much of it now with ESPN. Passan is a rare breed in the current media landscape: he breaks news, is one of the most gifted long-form baseball writers out there, appears on TV, and now, has dived headfirst into the competitive video podcast world with ESPN and Omaha Productions producing “Sources Tell Jeff Passan”.
The initial episodes – one with Cy Young winners Paul Skenes and Tarik Skubal, the other with World Series managers Dave Roberts and John Schneider – have been entertaining just as they have been informative.
Episodes of Sources Tell Jeff Passan will be available weekly on the ESPN YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and all major podcast platforms.
“I have dabbled with the idea of doing a podcast for a long time, but I didn’t want to do it until it was the right situation,” Passan tells me. “I think baseball is in a place right now where it needs more good in-depth reporting and storytelling. That’s something I love to do, and I appreciate the fact that Omaha has been as open-minded as it has, because I don’t think this is a typical show. I think it’s got its own unique voice to it, and takes this idea of the interview, which can be tricky sometimes, and tries to elevate it and make it into something different.”
Passan said that one of the key factors in how the podcast would be produced was his understanding of his strengths and weaknesses. After 23 years on the baseball beat, he knew his strengths would be storytelling and access. “My job is to know people and to have relationships with people,” he said. ”I’ve developed a level of trust where people understand that I’m going to handle their story in a professional way.”
On the weakness side, he knew he wanted to have a comedic element to the show, and for that, he tapped Richard Staff, who has been part of Amazin’ Avenue and Defector. Passan said Staff is full of one-liners, and his Twitter account is full of them. “I also knew was that I needed someone who was more creative than I am, and someone who was funnier than I am, and so early on in the process, I reached out to Richard,” said Passan, saying that even though the two have never met face-to-face at this stage, they immediately started bouncing ideas back and forth.
So, what does the finished product hold? First of all, between ESPN, Omaha Productions, and Passan’s gravitas, the ability to get the biggest names in baseball on the show is already making it stand out. But one thing that is extra cool is the graphics for the show mimic vintage 8-bit video games, something that Passan has a youthful attachment to.
He said the graphics “are totally Omaha,” but if you’ve seen any of Passan’s TV hits on ESPN, his background wall has an 8-bit Nintendo.
“That is the Nintendo that I played growing up,” Passan says. “And RBI Baseball was my favorite game. And so [the podcast graphics] are a little homage to RBI Baseball.”
Sprinkled throughout the podcast, pop-up bubbles provide tidbits such as when John Schneider talks about “the wheel” in a bunt situation, a bubble pops up telling you that the wheel is when the corner infielders crash to field a bunt and middle infielders sprint to the corner bases.
Given that the early episodes are light, with matters such as the upcoming labor battle, could Passan duck topics that might not be as fun and uplifting? If you’ve followed his work, you know the answer.
“If I see a fire, I’m not running away from it,” Passan emphatically says. “I’m going right toward it. That’s what I fear baseball is going to turn into, or could turn into, this winter. Those moments are interesting and somebody needs to tell the story behind it, how it got there and what happened. It needs to be done in a fact-based manner. And as I said in the monolog in the first episode, we’re going to do journalism here, and I meant that sincerely. Because that’s the foundation of everything that I have done professionally. It’s been this idea that telling stories that are rooted in truth and facts. That’s our job.”
As someone who’s been covering Major League Baseball for 25 years now, I don’t think I’ve seen anything as insightful and entertaining as the first two Sources Tell Jeff Passan. The next one with Cal Raleigh on catching should be much the same.
Here’s Episode 2 with Dodgers manager Dave Roberts and Blue Jays manager John Schneider.
