While Major League Baseball initially portrayed its breakup with ESPN as mutual, it has since become clear that wasn’t necessarily the case.
And while the Worldwide Leader is reportedly open to negotiating a new deal with MLB after their current agreement ends following the upcoming 2025 season, it appears the two sides aren’t on the same page there either.
Late Monday night, Puck’s John Ourand published a new story detailing the events that led to last week’s bombshell that ESPN and MLB were each opting out of their current rights deal early. As others had previously reported, the sports media insider noted that the split was hardly mutual, with ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro informing the league last week that it would be opting out of the deal.
That wasn’t because ESPN was looking to take baseball off its airwaves — in fact, according to Ourand, the network wanted more of it. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, however, rejected ESPN’s efforts to add new content such as the return of midweek broadcasts or local rights streams without the Disney-owned company increasing its $550 million per season payments (ESPN also reportedly sought to negotiate the current package to a lower price, which the league rejected).
As a result, MLB finds itself in search of a new national partner following the 2025 season, with Ourand noting that the league has already turned its eye to 2028, when all of its national rights will be available. He also reports that MLB has already had discussions with Amazon and Netflix, as well as informal talks with Skydance, which is in the process of completing its purchase of CBS and its Paramount+ streaming service. NBC has also reportedly shown interest in MLB’s rights.
Based on Ourand’s reporting, MLB’s strategy seems clear: to establish as many media relationships as possible ahead of 2028, even if it means taking a lower rights fee for the Sunday Night Baseball package than it would have been receiving from ESPN in the short term.
As for ESPN, the network still seems to value MLB — just not at the price it was paying, especially following the league’s recent deals with Apple and Roku. And while the Worldwide Leader is reportedly still open to negotiating a new deal with the league, such interest appears to be one-sided, with Ourand stating that “MLB is hellbent on drawing more companies into the ’28 auction.”
Of course, it’s always possible that ESPN could get back into the game by then, especially as Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery’s national rights become available and the network looks for content to fill its upcoming “Flagship” streaming service. But for now, it appears that MLB is intent on seeing this breakup through, even if it wasn’t the one to initiate it in the first place.
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