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The End of Baseball on ESPN
MLB and ESPN will no longer be in business together after the 2025 season. MLB says the decision was mutual. I’m guessing it wasn’t. Either way: Now what?
Joe Posnanski
February 25, 2025
I’ve read a bunch of stuff and talked to a bunch of people the last few days about the ESPN-MLB breakup, and the one thing that seems clear is that nobody thinks it’s good for anybody. Some think it’s worse for baseball. Some think it’s worse for ESPN. All seem to think it’s worse for us fans.
What I cannot quite get my arms around is if this is a bubble-bursting moment for the sport that so many of us love.
First, the news: MLB and ESPN broke up after 35 years of a tempestuous marriage.
This is from the letter Rob Manfred sent to the owners:
We and ESPN have mutually agreed to terminate our agreement. While ESPN has stated they would like to continue to have MLB on their platform, paritcularly in light of the upcoming launch of their DTC (Direct-To-Consumer) prodct, we do not think it’s beneficial for us to accept a smaller deal to remain on a shrinking platform … 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.
I guess “We and ESPN” is grammatically correct, but it sounds dumb.
Anyway, that doesn’t sound super friendly. It also doesn’t sound super transparent; not a single person I have talked with believes that this was a mutual decision at all. As one television insider told me, “If you think MLB voluntarily walked away from a half billion dollars and the biggest sports network on earth, I’ve got some property in Florida I’d like to sell you.”
What’s going to happen is that after this season, baseball will no longer be on ESPN. Sunday Night Baseball goes away. The Home Run Derby will be on a different service. The extra wildcard series — a pretty dumb idea from the start, in my opinion* — will be sold to the highest bidder. Manfred has said that he expects to have at least two potential options over the next few weeks; I guess those will include some streaming services like Roku and Apple TV. I’m sure Turner Sports will be involved somehow. Maybe NBC gets back in the game? Nah, probably not.
*OK, let me make this quick point: I don’t like the expanded playoffs in baseball for dozens of reasons — it diminishes the regular season, it clashes against 162 games, it makes the postseason a crapshoot and so on and so on. I’ve written all that 5,000 times at least. I’ve been outvoted: America loves the playoffs.
But what strikes me specifically about the Wildcard Series is that it feels like a very bad business decision. What television network desperately wants mid-week, mid-day baseball games featuring the 10th and 12 best teams? How valuable could that property possibly be?
I tend to agree with the unanimous opinion of those I have spoken with: ESPN walked away from MLB. That simple. I feel sure they demanded a lower price, and I feel sure that MLB didn’t like that one bit, and I feel sure that after some contentious negotiations, ESPN opted out.
Manfred then went on a rant about how ESPN’s baseball coverage was lacking (I would agree), and how ESPN is no longer the dominant Worldwide Leader in Sports it once was (I would agree with that, too), and how baseball’s ratings were up 6% in 2024 despite it being an Olympic year (eh, OK, whatever). Manfred’s note to the owners definitely has spurned-lover vibes. We’ll find someone even better!
But the main point:
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