{"id":511251,"date":"2026-01-08T13:18:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T13:18:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/511251\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T13:18:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T13:18:17","slug":"espn-not-expected-to-add-local-mlb-games-until-2027","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/511251\/","title":{"rendered":"ESPN not expected to add local MLB games until 2027"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The start of the 2026 MLB season is only a few months away.<\/p>\n<p>But while the league will enter its upcoming campaign with a revamped media rights deal, it appears that one of its key components won\u2019t take effect until the following year.<\/p>\n<p>On Wednesday, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6948445\/2026\/01\/07\/fanduel-sports-network-renegotiate-payments-cardinals\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Athletic\u2019s Evan Drellich and Katie Woo published a piece<\/a> detailing the uncertainty that nine MLB teams face regarding their local rights as <a href=\"https:\/\/awfulannouncing.com\/local-networks\/fanduel-sports-networks-miss-rights-payments-nba-teams.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Main Street Sports Group continues to struggle<\/a>. Included in the report was a nugget regarding the future of the eight teams whose local rights the league controls, which are expected to ultimately land on ESPN\u2019s direct-to-consumer streaming service by way of the Worldwide Leader\u2019s acquisition of MLB.tv.<\/p>\n<p>But while the MLB.tv deal <a href=\"https:\/\/awfulannouncing.com\/mlb\/finalizes-mlb-tv-deal-not-available-youtube-tv.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">was finalized last November<\/a>, it doesn\u2019t appear that it will have a significant impact on the 2026 season. According to The Athletic, \u201cESPN likely won\u2019t actually carry local MLB telecasts on its services until 2027,\u201d a key detail that had previously been unreported.<\/p>\n<p>Currently, MLB controls the local rights for the San Diego Padres, Arizona Diamondbacks, Cleveland Guardians, Colorado Rockies, Minnesota Twins and Seattle Mariners (and <a href=\"https:\/\/awfulannouncing.com\/mlb\/nationals-leaving-masn-league-controlled-local-broadcasts.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">reportedly soon<\/a>, the Washington Nationals). With Main Street Sports Group possessing the rights to nine more teams \u2014 the Atlanta Braves, Cincinnati Reds, Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Angels, Miami Marlins, Milwaukee Brewers, St. Louis Cardinals and Tampa Bay Ray \u2014 it would stand to reason that MLB will likely add to its portfolio in the coming months, as the FanDuel Sports Network operator faces an uncertain future.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMLB itself stands as the most likely home for any teams that leave Main Street in the near future, including the Cardinals,\u201d The Athletic reports. \u201cThe league has handled TV production and distribution for multiple teams in each of the last three seasons, and has an expected roster of at least seven teams for 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For years now, it\u2019s been evident that MLB\u2019s strategy has been to obtain as many local rights as possible in order to sell them as package. Now that plan is finally in motion, even if it\u2019s still more than a year away from coming to fruition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The start of the 2026 MLB season is only a few months away. But while the league will&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[5,11851],"class_list":["post-511251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-baseball","tag-baseball","tag-mlb-on-espn"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115859679153069468","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511251\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}