ESPN Will No Longer Broadcast MLB Games

ESPN's long-standing partnership with Major League Baseball is coming to an end, years early.

Thursday afternoon, the two sides announced that they had "mutually agreed" to end their national television deal after the 2025 season, three years early. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred sent a memo to the league's owners, per The Athletic, saying that the league has been frustrated by ESPN's obvious disinterest in baseball. 

Manfred said they've "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."

He also reportedly described ESPN and its baseball coverage as a "shrinking platform."

"We do not think it’s beneficial for us to accept a smaller deal to remain on a shrinking platform," Manfred said 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."

While it was announced as a "mutual agreement," Manfred's explanation implies that the league has been looking into a move for some time.

"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," he said.

Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred.  (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

ESPN Loses Out Thanks To Misplaced Priorities

It's no secret that ESPN has become increasingly disinterested in baseball, with a focus on promoting the NBA and SEC football. 

While the SEC has been wildly successful for the broadcast network, the NBA has seen a disastrous decline in ratings as a result of a series of missteps. Baseball though, has been growing in popularity.

MLB's league-wide attendance in 2024 grew year-over-year, reaching the highest figure since 2017. Per an MLB press release, ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball saw its most-viewed season in five years in 2024. National TV partners also had double-digit growth in key demographics.

"MLB’s national television partners registered double digit growth in the Adult 18-34 category including ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball (+12%), FS1 (+24%) and MLB Network (+36%). In addition, FOX registered a +9% increase in the 18-34 demo."

Rule changes to increase pace of play have worked to drive interest. And now ESPN will be out of a growing business, while continuing to promote a dying one. Kinda sums up how they've run that network into the ground, doesn't it?