Fans of 10 MLB teams still don’t know where they’ll be able to watch games on TV, and an announcement may not come until Opening Day.
The Washington Nationals, Seattle Mariners, Milwaukee Brewers, St. Louis Cardinals, Miami Marlins, Tampa Bay Rays, Cincinnati Reds, Kansas City Royals, and Detroit Tigers are in their first season with MLB Local Media, the league-operated outfit that will handle production and distribution for about half of the league this season. So far, none of these teams have announced television distribution for the upcoming season. The Atlanta Braves, who launched their own network BravesVision with a similar format to MLB Local Media, have also not announced television channels.
When teams announced they were moving to MLB Local Media, a direct-to-consumer streaming option was immediately announced. But while MLB and the Braves pledged cable companies that carried teams’ games in 2025 would continue to do so under MLB Local Media in 2026, 10 teams still haven’t formalized these plans.
Unlike traditional regional sports networks, MLB Local Media operates temporary channels for teams. The channels only air live games and surrounding studio coverage. There is no 24/7 programming. That means there is no rush by cable or satellite distributors to get these channels on the air before Opening Day, even if fans would prefer a quicker rollout.
There have been some impacts on live games, however. Spring training games for these teams, which have been produced by MLB Local Media, remain streaming-only. In many cases, those streams have been free.
There’s good reason to believe games will be available on television by Opening Day. The Cleveland Guardians and Minnesota Twins joined MLB Local Media prior to last season and channels were announced hours before first pitch on Opening Day.
There are other signs of impending deals. In Cincinnati, the cable service AltaFiber has already announced a deal to carry the Reds. Spectrum in Florida has a channel marked for the Rays, according to the Tampa Bay Times. DirecTV also lists channels for these teams as “coming soon” on their regional sports network page.
As for why Major League Baseball is waiting until Opening Day to announce these deals, the same Tampa Bay Times report says that MLB “wants all of the deals completed before it makes any announcements.”
But until the deals are officially announced, the only official way to watch games will be through teams’ direct-to-consumer services. That’s another reason it behooves the league and teams to wait; they get extra subscription revenue from nervous fans.
If you are one of those nervous fans, however, it is extremely likely that your cable company will eventually add a channel to watch your local baseball team before the first pitch this week.