Danielle Solzman
ESPN Sunday Night Baseball has been a mainstay of MLB on ESPN since Opening Day of the 1990 season but the days might be numbered.
The Athletic is reporting that MLB could walk away from their ESPN partnership should the cable network opt out of their TV rights deal with the league. Both parties to the agreement have an opt-out deal, allowing either to opt-out following the 2025 season. If neither side opts out, ESPN will then keep airing MLB games through 2028. According to The Athletic, sources told them that “a new deal with ESPN would be unlikely following an opt out.”
The MLB owners’ meetings also took place this week with Commissioner Rob Manfred addressing press at the conclusion:
“We talk to ESPN all the time,” Manfred said. “They’re one of our big partners…We both have an out in March of this year. Obviously, ‘25 is set. Yeah, we’ll continue to talk to them. And each side will make a decision whether they want to do anything with that.”
Should ESPN opt out airing ESPN Sunday Night Baseball, where would the primetime game go? It’s just a question of how the league would make up for the $500 million that they would lose in revenue. How the planned direct-to-consumer launch of ESPN impacts all of this, I don’t know. MLB is certainly looking to get more games into homes without blacking them out. We’ve seen this through either revamped deals with the Diamond Sports Group. MLB will also produce local games that are not airing on any of the FanDuel Sports Network channels. ESPN is said to have an interest in team-specific deals. Would these games be ESPN exclusives or would fans be able to watch through MLB TV? Whether MLB even interested is another question.
Their previous Sunday afternoon game went from TBS to Peacock and now, the Roku Channel. The Roku deal is worth $10 million a year. To be fair, TBS didn’t lose baseball altogether. They just changed their deal from Sundays to Tuesday nights, still including the postseason. The seven-year rights extension between WarnerMedia and MLB is worth $3.75 billion A select Friday night game is exclusively airing on Apple TV+ subscribers and blacked out for MLB TV subscribers. This deal, of course, is for $85 million. MLB also has an agreement with Fox, which also runs through 2028. The league has the potential for a big payday if they follow in the NBA and NFL’s footsteps.
MLB and the MLBPA also have to negotiate a new Collective Bargaining Agreement in 2026, two years before national TV contracts expire. On top of this, we certainly don’t know what the future holds for the MLB relationship with Diamond. A number of renewals going into the 2025 season were for one-year agreements rather than longer. These shorter deals also means a decrease in the revenue that teams are earning. Whether MLB will produce more local games remains to be seen. All eyes are on the CBA negotiations and 2028.
“Most important from my perspective is that all the deals for the Diamond clubs end no later than 2028,” commissioner Rob Manfred told The Athletic on Tuesday, the first of three days of owners’ meetings in New York. “My interest in local rights in large part is to have them available when we do national renewals.”
ESPN’s MLB programming has certainly changed through the years. Where Baseball Tonight aired daily through 2017, it’s now down to just a single night, leading into ESPN Sunday Night Baseball. Much of the premiere baseball programming is airing on the MLB Network.
ESPN will air a double header will MLB opens up their season on March 27. The New York Yankees will host the Milwaukee Brewers at 3 PM ET. Following this game, the Los Angeles Dodgers will raise their 2024 World Series banner when they host the Detroit Tigers at 7 PM ET. Baseball Tonight will air between the doubleheader at 6 PM ET.
As for this season, here’s the current schedule:
March 30
Atlanta Braves vs. San Diego Padres
April 6
St. Louis Cardinals vs. Boston Red Sox
April 13
Chicago Cubs vs. Los Angeles Dodgers
April 20
San Diego Padres vs. Houston Astros
April 27
Philadelphia Phillies vs. Chicago Cubs
May 4
Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Atlanta Braves
May 11
Philadelphia Phillies vs. Cleveland Guardians
May 18
New York Mets vs. New York Yankees
May 25
Los Angeles Dodgers vs. New York Mets
June 1
New York Yankees vs. Los Angeles Dodgers
June 22
New York Mets vs. Philadelphia Phillies
July 6*
TBD at 6 p.m.
July 6*
Texas Rangers vs. San Diego Padres at 9 p.m.
August 17
MLB Little League Classic: Seattle Mariners vs. New York Mets
*Sunday Night Baseball begins at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted.
ESPN Sunday Night Baseball returns on March 30, 2025.
Discover more from Dugout Dirt
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
