ESPN announced more game selections for its 2026 Major League Baseball schedule on Monday, including a Memorial Day matchup between the New York Yankees and Kansas City Royals. The network will air 30 regular-season games under its new deal with MLB, a significant reduction from the Sunday Night Baseball package it opted out of earlier this year.
According to a release, ESPN will begin its season on April 15 with the New York Mets visiting the reigning World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium for Jackie Robinson Day at 10 p.m. The network will also air the second-half opener on July 16, when the Mets visit the Philadelphia Phillies at 7 p.m., and the MLB Little League Classic on August 23, between the Atlanta Braves and Milwaukee Brewers from Williamsport, at 7 p.m. All four games will air exclusively on ESPN.
The new ESPN package looks nothing like the network’s previous MLB offering.
ESPN and the league mutually opted out of their deal in February after commissioner Rob Manfred cited decreased baseball coverage and called ESPN a “shrinking platform” in a memo to teams. ESPN had been paying around $550 million annually for Sunday Night Baseball, the Wild Card round, Opening Night, and the Home Run Derby. The network initially offered to stay in the deal at a reduced rate of around $200 million per year, which MLB rejected as too low.
MLB then sold most of ESPN’s old inventory to NBC and Netflix for a combined $250 million annually. NBC secured Sunday Night Baseball and the Wild Card games for a maximum of $200 million per year, while Netflix got Opening Night and the Home Run Derby for $50 million. The network ultimately struck a new three-year deal with ESPN that pays the same $550 million annually as the old contract, but the value now comes primarily from local broadcast rights and MLB.tv rather than national games.
ESPN’s new package includes 30 exclusive national games that will air on weeknights instead of Sundays, along with the broadcast rights to six teams currently under league control: Cleveland, San Diego, Seattle, Minnesota, Arizona, and Colorado. The network will also house MLB.tv within its direct-to-consumer app, giving ESPN control of the out-of-market subscription service that typically costs around $150 per season.
The three-year deal runs through 2028, when MLB’s contracts with Fox and TNT expire, and the league can renegotiate its entire national rights package.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.