Rob Manfred Says ESPN 'Disrespected' Major League Baseball

One of the more surprising stories of the Major League Baseball offseason was the announcement that ESPN would no longer broadcast baseball games after the 2025 season. ESPN exercised the option to withdraw from its package of games, including Sunday Night Baseball and the Home Run Derby, seemingly out of nowhere.

All because MLB wouldn't accept a massive cut in fees, from over $500 million per year, to just $200 million.

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred spoke about the split recently on Mad Dog Unleashed with Chris Russo, saying he wasn't surprised. Or that happy with how ESPN had covered baseball in recent years.

Manfred also took a shot at ESPN, saying to Russo that he'd explained to the owners that it "wouldn’t be beneficial to accept a smaller deal to remain on a shrinking platform."

"Were you surprised?" Russo asked him. "Were you keeled over when ESPN said they were going to opt out of the contract. Or did you see it coming?"

"I didn’t have to see it, I could read it," Manfred said. "I mean, there were leaks going back a year. It’s unfortunate that was the mode of communication. But, you know, eventually it got to the point where they told us what they were thinking. But we had been reading leaks for over a year before that phone call took place. That’s unfortunate, it did not help the conversations. Look, there was a level of dissatisfaction on our part. It started with the end of Baseball Tonight."

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

Rob Manfred Doesn't Seem Too Upset To Lose ESPN

Manfred continued, saying ESPN was willing to "step up" for basketball and football, but wouldn't even put baseball highlights in a good position on SportsCenter.

"I think if you watch ESPN, and I do, where we appear on SportsCenter in the morning, there were issues there too. You know, there was a level of dissatisfaction. Having said that, did we want to be partners with them? Yes, but you know, taking less money… Look, I said this publicly because I said it to them. They stepped up for the NBA. They stepped up for football. And to come back to us and say we want to cut you… We felt like we were being treated disrespectfully. Particularly if you listen to their own rhetoric when they are marketing baseball. We are up for them. We were up on 18 to 34 (year olds); we deliver a nice Hispanic audience. We do a great job in terms of gender breakdown. So like I said, it was an unfortunate thing. They were a great, great partner."

ESPN has made bewildering choices in recent years; in their hiring and firing decisions, and in how they choose to prioritize certain sports. Basketball is in rapid, seemingly unfixable decline, while baseball is ascendant. So ESPN chose to heavily invest in basketball. Makes sense.

Yes, football is the dominant sport in the U.S., and is likely to continue to be so. But baseball has grabbed much of the momentum back towards being a clear number two. Unfortunately, the league's politics are not as obviously aligned with ESPN as the NBA's are. Seems like they thought that was worth losing money on.