Could ESPN be coming for the World Series?

That’s the question Andrew Marchand raised on his Marchand Sports Media podcast this week, and it’s not as far-fetched as it might sound. Fox has held the Fall Classic for more than a quarter century, but its current MLB deal expires after 2028, and Marchand believes ESPN will be among the most aggressive bidders when baseball’s full rights package comes back to market.

“I think possibly they go after the World Series,” Marchand said. “Now, this will not be until 2029 — we might have a lockout between now and then. The NFL is hanging over everybody in that they want more money, but I think ESPN is already thinking about, ‘Could we get the World Series?’  You look at what they’re doing right now: NBA Finals, Stanley Cup Finals, they have the national championship, they have the Super Bowl this year. There’s not that many huge events coming up in the next few years. The next World Cup will be up for auction, there’s some other things as well. But, baseball and the World Series is something I could see ESPN making a run for. Fox has had it now for more than a quarter of a century every year… I think it could be rotating in the future.”

ESPN currently has the NBA Finals, the Stanley Cup &, in Feb., the Super Bowl.

Is the World Series next? https://t.co/HeVQ3ePjJP pic.twitter.com/SngjoKn7a7

— Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) June 9, 2026

When those aforementioned deals expire, MLB will return to the market with the sport’s most valuable postseason inventory. As Awful Announcing noted when MLB’s new deals were finalized earlier this year, the league now has six broadcast partners simultaneously — NBC, Netflix, ESPN, Fox, TBS, and Apple — and the demand for its most premium inventory is high. Marchand and John Ourand discussed last fall the possibility of the World Series being split among as many as three different broadcasters in the next rights cycle, with Ourand noting that “right now, there are so few things that cut through” and the World Series is one of them.

ESPN’s position heading into those negotiations is considerably stronger than it was when it opted out of its previous Sunday Night Baseball deal in 2025. The network rebuilt its MLB relationship over the course of last year, securing a new package centered on weeknight games and MLB.tv rather than marquee national windows. It still lacks the postseason inventory it once had, and the World Series would change that considerably.

Marchand and his co-host Jon Meterparel also speculated about who could be behind the mic if ESPN secured the deal, landing on Joe Buck, who has been slowly re-engaging with baseball since leaving Fox — calling Jackie Robinson Day for ESPN the past two springs after years of keeping his distance from the sport — but who has made clear the postseason itch doesn’t need to be scratched anymore. Marchand thinks the World Series would change that conversation, though it would probably cost ESPN more to make it happen.

None of this happens before 2029 at the earliest, and a lot stands between now and then, including the MLB labor situation, with the CBA expiring Dec. 1 and a lockout widely expected. But with Fox’s deal expiring after 2028 and multiple partners already circling baseball’s most premium postseason inventory, the conversation is coming sooner than it might seem.