Major League Baseball appears to be out of ESPN's radio waves after the 2025 season.
According to a memo from MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, both parties “we have mutually agreed” to shorten national television deals from this year onwards. Via athletic.
Manfred is not satisfied with the minimum coverage MLB has received on ESPN's platform outside of actual live game coverage,” according to the memo.
The league and network had a March 1 deadline to opt out of trading expanding partnerships until the 2028 season.
Until this season, ESPN will continue to air 2025 Home Run Derby, Sunday Night Baseball, Wild Card Round Games and other MLB rights.
Manfred said the league is talking to “several stakeholders,” but it is reported that parties can still build terms with new deals.
ESPN, which currently pays $550 million per season for broadcast rights, has recently been considering revising its current deal. Athletic reported Early this month.
“ESPN says it wants to continue to have MLB on its platform, particularly in light of the upcoming release of DTC. [direct-to-consumer] Products, we don't think it's beneficial to accept smaller deals to stay on a shrinking platform,” Manfred wrote in a memo.
“It is not wise to devalue your rights with existing partners to make the most of MLB to optimize your rights to participate in the next trading cycle, and Markey's regular season games, Home Run Derby, Wildcards I believe it is wise to make the playoffs. Round new broadcast and/or streaming platforms.”
In a statement Thursday, ESPN kept the door open to place MLB on the platform in some way in the future.
“We are grateful for our long-standing relationship with Major League Baseball and are proud of our coverage super-selves fans at ESPN,” the network wrote. “In making this decision, we applied the same discipline and financial responsibility that built ESPN's industry-leading live event portfolio. We've been through the process, and we've been working on the whole platform beyond 2025. We continue to embrace new ways to serve MLB fans at our company.”
MLB and ESPN have been television partners since 1990.
