MLB, ESPN mutually agree to opt out of final three years of TV deal after 2025

MLB, ESPN mutually agree to opt out of final three years of TV deal after 2025

Major League Baseball and ESPN have mutually agreed to part ways and opt out of the final three years of their current TV Deal after the 2025 Season, Evan Drellich and Andrew Marchand of The Athletic first reported Thursday.

BREAKING: ESPN and MLB are no longer national TV partners after this season. They "mutually agreed" to opt out of the final 3 years of their deal, per a letter obtained by The Athletic.https://t.co/Icc0vQldKF

— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) February 20, 2025

The original deal lasted through the 2028 season, where a March 1 deadline loomed for a potential opt-out. According to the report, MLB was unhappy with the network’s “minimal coverage” on “ESPN’s platforms over the past several years outside of the actual live game coverage.”

The bulk of ESPN’s MLB coverage outside of game coverage is Baseball Tonight, a nightly show that is one hour long. The show is hosted by either Karl Ravech or Kevin Connors featuring a combination of Jessica Mendoza, Eduardo Perez, Chris Singleton, Doug Glanville, Tim Kurkjian, Buster Olney and insider Jeff Passan, among others.

There’s occasional coverage on other shows like Sportscenter, but it’s few and far between. ESPN lacks reputable coverage for the NBA, MLB and NHL outside of game coverage, which is a serious issue that I am glad MLB’s making a stance for.

“We do not think it’s beneficial for us to accept a smaller deal to remain on a shrinking platform,” Manfred wrote, according to Drellich and Marchand. “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.

“To that end, we have been in conversations with several interested parties around these rights over the past several months and expect to have at least two potential options for consideration over the next few weeks. To be clear, our games will continue to be on ESPN for the entirety of the 2025 MLB season, including the postseason. Any new deal will commence in 2026. I will be in touch with more information as events warrant.”

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The fact that Manfred labeled ESPN a “shrinking platform” is bold. Baseball continues to grow, but I wonder what the next step will be for Baseball Tonight, Home Run Derby, Sunday Night Baseball and the wild-card postseason coverage from the 30-plus-year-long partnership.

Manfred did talk bout the deals involving Apple and Roku. Will this mean a greater transition to either Amazon Prime, as well as potentially NBC/Peacock, which the NBA has ventured in? Could Turner Sports get involved? We’ll know more details in the coming months, but I am fascinated by how this plays out.

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