Sunday Night Baseball MLB Ratings Show Why ESPN Made Another Huge Mistake

One of the most surprising announcements of the 2025 Major League Baseball season came when ESPN and the league announced that the two sides would split at the end of the year.

ESPN has been a partner with MLB for decades, broadcasting the exclusive Sunday Night Baseball window as well as Home Run Derby. But seemingly out of nowhere, the network requested that the league take a massive discount on its previously agreed-to fee.

They declined.

READ: ESPN Will No Longer Broadcast MLB Games

Unless there's a new agreement, ESPN will no longer broadcast professional baseball games, a shocking end to one of the country's biggest sports on one of its biggest sports-based (theoretically) networks.

And the ratings for Sunday Night Baseball show why that's such a massive mistake.

NEW YORK - New York Yankees relief pitcher Devin Williams reacts after retiring the side in the eighth inning against the New York Mets at Yankee Stadium on May 18, 2025. Photo: Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images

Huge Ratings For Yankees-Mets On Sunday Night Baseball

Ratings for the Sunday Night Baseball matchup between the New York Yankees and New York Mets are in, and they were massive.

The game averaged 2.5 million viewers, per ESPN public relations, and peaked at 3 million. It was the most watched baseball game of the season thus far, and the most watched broadcast of its type since 2017. 

Yes, the game benefited from the increased interest around Juan Soto's return to the Bronx and Yankee Stadium as a member of the Mets. But it's still a gigantic number for a regular season baseball game in May. And it shows that the league's willingness to make changes to pace-of-play has paid off.

Baseball is growing; attendance, ratings and fan interest. It's a business more and more broadcast partners want to be in, and for good reason. So why is ESPN getting out? Because it's overspent on other properties, hurting itself with baseball in the process.

So much of the recent history of ESPN is the company getting in its own way. Turns out it's likely done it again.