LOS ANGELES, Calif. - Hall of Famer John Smoltz has been promoted to Fox's lead baseball analyst and will work alongside play-by-play man Joe Buck, displacing Harold Reynolds and Tom Verducci.

Fox made the announcement Tuesday. Network spokesman Dan Bell said Fox was discussing different roles with Reynolds, who also works for the MLB Network, and Verducci, who also works for the MLB Network and Sports Illustrated.

Reynolds drew the ire of many Canadian baseball fans in October during Fox's coverage of the Toronto Blue Jays' playoff run. After watching the first two games of the Blue Jays-Rangers series in Toronto, the 55-year-old analyst raised eyebrows with a comment after a foul ball was hit in Texas during Game 3.

"We were talking about foul balls in the stands up in Toronto, and because there's not a lot of people that grew up playing baseball in Canada, they're not used to catching a lot of balls in the stands ... not many people catching that one, anyway," Reynolds said.

Reynolds apologized for the statement the next day.

"Sorry Canada, whole country, if I offended you for that," Reynolds said before Game 4. "I'm well aware of the baseball players that have come out of there...I never ever want to offend people. That's never the nature of my heart, that's not who I am. So it was never (meant) to be offensive, not at all. That's it."

Former National League Most Valuable Player Larry Walker of Maple Ridge, B.C. even got involved via Twitter.

"I won 7 gold gloves. I think part of winning them was cause I could catch," Walker tweeted from his verified account.

Winner of the 1996 NL Cy Young Award, Smoltz was a first-ballot pick for the Hall this year. He has been a Fox analyst during the last two seasons.

Reynolds and Verducci joined Buck in the booth in 2014 following the retirement of Tim McCarver.