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MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred Slams ESPN After Ending Broadcast Partnership

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Michael Gallagher | Last updated Feb 21, 2025 4:24 PM ET

Following a partnership that spanned three-and-a-half decades, ESPN and Major League Baseball mutually agreed to end their broadcast relationship after the 2025 season on Thursday.

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred told The Athletic that he has “not been pleased with the minimal coverage that MLB has received on ESPN’s platforms over the past several years outside of the actual live game coverage,” which prompted the league to look elsewhere for MLB’s new television home.

According to The Athletic, MLB and ESPN disagreed on the actual worth of the broadcast deal. The latter was set to pay $550 million per season over the next three years to broadcast MLB games, which the network claimed was actually over market value.

After the news broke, ESPN released a statement painting the situation as a mutual decision, stating “As we have been throughout the process, we remain open to exploring new ways to serve MLB fans across our platforms beyond 2025.”

However, Manfred wasn’t so cordial, ripping the sports media giant for treating MLB like a second-rate sports league.

“While ESPN has stated they would like to continue to have MLB on their platform, particularly in light of the upcoming launch of their DTC (direct-to-consumer) product, we do not think it's beneficial for us to accept a smaller deal to remain on a shrinking platform,” Manfred stated.

“In order to best position MLB to optimize our rights going in to our next deal cycle, we believe it is not prudent to devalue our rights with an existing partner but rather to have our marquee regular season games, Home Run Derby and Wild Card playoff round on a new broadcast and/or streaming platform.”

In addition to Manfred’s scathing remarks, he also sent a memo to the league owners on Thursday indicating some potential new interested broadcast partners could include Amazon, NBC Universal, Netflix, and Paramount.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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