ESPN MLB announcer Boog Sciambi has some interesting new details on the opt-out that will cut short the two sides’ broadcast deal after this season.
In an appearance with Spiegel & Holmes on Chicago’s 670 The Score, the voice of baseball on ESPN Radio revealed that the league initially suggested the opt-out. Now, we know it was ESPN that ultimately took advantage of the option, ending the partnership before it was set to expire in 2028.
“The league made a mistake, right? Because the league was the one that initially offered or asked for the opt-out, and then ultimately, ESPN got one as well,” Sciambi said. “It was a major mistake because if they hadn’t done an opt-out, then MLB would be locked into $550 million for this year, plus two or three more years.”
Boog Sciambi on ESPN and MLB ending their television rights deal: “The league made a mistake, because the league was the one that initially offered or asked for the opt-out. And then ultimately ESPN got one as well. It was a major mistake.”
Listen: https://t.co/o1boZwULxu pic.twitter.com/rYttjQKocZ
— 670 The Score (@670TheScore) February 26, 2025
This news would seem to support the idea that MLB commissioner Rob Manfred was indeed fed up with the worldwide leader’s dwindling baseball coverage, though Sciambi believes the two sides could come together again on a new deal.
“I think they can go back to the table. It’s not done until it’s done,” Sciambi said.
“I would personally say this: I think the league probably needs ESPN a little bit more than vice versa. I think whatever you want to say about ESPN and how it’s changed, and you don’t like it as much as you used to, it is still the place that sports fans go to watch games. If you think about how the NHL was covered or not covered by ESPN when it wasn’t on the network, I mean it disappeared off the face of the planet.
“And I just think that if you’re baseball, there are going to be times when people would stumble onto baseball games because people put the channel on. It’s a fact that if you put the exact same event on at the exact same time on ESPN and on TBS and on TNT, it will rate higher every single time on ESPN, because it’s just got more reach. So, ultimately, I think that the league and ESPN will still get together. My guess is that they probably will still do something. I’m not going to say 100 percent, and if they don’t, it’s disappointing.”
Currently, ESPN owns the rights to the exclusive Sunday Night Baseball national window as well as an Opening Day slate, the Home Run Derby and the new Wild Card round of the postseason.
The $550 million price tag for those rights (plus lesser goodies like ESPN Radio coverage of the postseason and an ESPN+ “Game of the Day”) probably didn’t add up anymore in an age where Apple is paying $85 million for a Friday night game, and Roku is paying $10 million for a Sunday morning game. But to Sciambi’s point, Manfred has to know what can happen when a sport breaks up with the worldwide leader.
If MLB can find more money somewhere else, they may walk. If not, now we know the league has no one to blame but itself for this situation.
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