One thing, however: Rhadigan has no baseball play-by-play experience.

Rhadigan, who signed a multi-year contract, will team with longtime analyst Tom Grieve for the club’s spring training and regular season telecasts on Fox Sports Southwest and TXA21.

Rhadigan has been at FSSW, long-time cable home of the Rangers since June 2001. He has worked their pre- and postgame shows. Before anchoring at FSSW, he pounded the D-FW sports beat at KXAS (Channel 5) for a decade.

During the recent postseason run, Rhadigan worked with Grieve on FSSW's postgame shows. The Rangers believe Rhadigan would be low key but be able to muster enough energy to engineer a broadcast.

The Rangers parted ways with Josh Lewin three months ago.

Eric Nadel had to be the Rangers’ first choice. But not even the almighty Nolan Ryan attempted to persuade Nadel to shift over from radio where he is a Hall of Fame caliber broadcaster.

But the final choice was Rhadigan, who over the years has also dabbled in sports talk across the radio dial. The Rangers like his name recognition.

Rhadigan is extremely well-liked throughout the local media and that should buy a rookie time to settle in if he gets the job. It has been whispered that he has a supporter in Ryan.

“John Rhadigan’s reputation as an accomplished broadcaster is well known in not only the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex but also in our entire television market,” commented Rangers Managing Partner and CEO Chuck Greenberg in a statement. “We feel that John and Tom Grieve will do a great job of bringing Rangers baseball to our fans each and every night.”

Added team President Nolan Ryan: “John has a strong knowledge of the Rangers through the many years he has covered the club. He has demonstrated his creativity and personality through the many features he has done with our players. I look forward to watching John and Tom on the telecasts this season.”

Rhadigan will continue to work for Fox Sports Southwest until joining the Rangers fulltime in March. Texas will televise 11 spring training games from Arizona , eight on TXA21 and three on Fox Sports Southwest, beginning with TXA21’s telecast on Saturday, March 12 versus the Chicago White Sox at 2:05 p.m. CT.

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A native of Brighton, Mich., Rhadigan earned a bachelor of arts degree in communications from Oakland (Michigan) University. He resides in Mansfield, Texas with his wife, Kathy; daughter, McKenna; and son, Kal.