It appears Major League Baseball will be off ESPN’s airwaves after the 2025 season.
The two sides “mutually agreed” to cut their national television deal short after this year, according to a memo from MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, via The Athletic.
Manfred has “not been pleased with the minimal coverage that MLB has received on ESPN’s platforms over the past several years outside of the actual live game coverage,” according to the memo.
The league and network had a March 1 deadline to opt out on a deal that would’ve extended their partnership through the 2028 season.
ESPN will continue to broadcast the 2025 Home Run Derby, Sunday Night Baseball, its wild-card round games and other MLB rights through this season.
The parties could still reportedly come to terms on a new deal, though Manfred noted the league is talking to “several interested parties.”
ESPN, who currently pays MLB $550 million per season for broadcast rights, was recently looking to revise the current deal, The Athletic reported earlier this month.
“While ESPN has stated they would like to continue to have MLB on their platform, particularly in light of the upcoming launch of their DTC [direct-to-consumer] product, we do not think it’s beneficial for us to accept a smaller deal to remain on a shrinking platform,” Manfred wrote in the memo.
“In order to best position MLB to optimize our rights going in to our next deal cycle, we believe it is not prudent to devalue our rights with an existing partner but rather to have our marquee regular season games, Home Run Derby and Wild Card playoff round on a new broadcast and/or streaming platform.”
In a statement on Thursday, ESPN left the door open to having MLB on its platforms in one form or another in the future.
“We are grateful for our longstanding relationship with Major League Baseball and proud of how ESPN’s coverage super-serves fans,” the network wrote. “In making this decision, we applied the same discipline and fiscal responsibility that has built ESPN’s industry-leading live events portfolio as we continue to grow our audience across linear, digital and social platforms. As we have been throughout the process, we remain open to new ways to serve MLB fans across our platforms beyond 2025.”
MLB and ESPN have been television partners since 1990.
