Jul 12, 2025; Atlanta, GA, USA; The National League stands for the National Anthem before the game against American League at Truist Park. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-Imagn Images
By Reice Shipley on

On Saturday, the 26th annual MLB Futures Game took place at Truist Park, an event that is ideally supposed to promote some of the future stars of the sport that will soon become household names at the MLB level. But unfortunately, both the timing and the overall lack of marketing around the event has subjected to league to a significant amount of criticism from baseball media members.

It’s no secret that the sport of baseball as a whole has had an issue marketing, even the highest level with some of its biggest stars, for years now. And perhaps one reason for this is that up and coming stars playing in the MLB Futures Game haven’t exactly been given much of a platform to show their skills to the masses and form a fanbase from the ground up.

Instead of hosting the event during or after All-Star Week and giving it a standalone platform, this year’s event, which was aired on the MLB Network, took place just days before the All-Star Week. This means that this year’s event is going head-to-head with a jam-packed MLB schedule on Saturday where all 30 MLB teams are playing, many of these games overlapping directly with the Futures Game.

On Saturday prior to the Futures Game, the cast of the Foul Territory Podcast, which includes former MLB players Erik Kratz and Todd Frazier, accompanied by host Scott Braun, took issue the the scheduling of the MLB Futures Game, arguing that it does no favors to the young players they are supposed to be trying to promote.

“Tell me you don’t want to promote the young players without telling me you don’t want to promote the young players,” said Kratz.

“You know what else is happening on Saturday at 4 PM Eastern Time? The Mets are playing the Royals. The Cubs and Yankees will be wrapping up a game. I mean, do you want me to keep going?” added Braun. “The Dodgers and the Giants play. The schedule is littered with games happening at the exact same time. And you are telling people to take away from their big league team and watch the futures game? We are lost on how to promote the young side of the sport right now between the draft and the Futures Game. We are lost, in terms of scheduling.”

The Foul Territory cast were not alone in their criticism of the MLB for the scheduling of the event, or even the exposure level of the event being aired on MLB Network. Several media members similarly aired their grievances on social media about the event.

“What a great way to put the national spotlight on the stars of the future. Play 10 MLB games at the same time,” Lance McAlister of 700WLW in Cincinnati ironically said in a post on X.

“MLB: We want you to watch young studs so we put Jacob Misiorowski in the All-Star Game,” wrote Eric Samulski of NBC Sports’ Rotoworld. “Also MLB: You want to watch young studs? Well, we’re gonna bury our Futures Game on a Saturday afternoon while we’re playing a whole late of MLB games at the same time.”

“Again, if the MLB wanted us to care about the futures game, why isn’t it Monday night and not in conflict with a whole day’s slate of games,” wrote James Christopher, a producer of Amazon Prime Video’s Ballpark Nation series.

Only time will tell whether the league opts to change where the Futures Game lands on the calendar in the future. But clearly, making this change would be an overwhelming positive for the vast majority of baseball fans who have been forced to choosing watching their favorite team or some of the top prospects in the sport.

About Reice Shipley

Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.

View all posts by Reice Shipley