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ESPN’s One True MLB Outcome

The network is betting its $550 million link-up with MLB.TV will attract a host of new users to its ESPN Unlimited app—and point in the direction of its future as a bundler.

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The deal constitutes a massive bet that programming all of MLB’s out-of-market games on ESPN Unlimited is the key to the network’s streaming future. Photo: Terence Lewis/Icon Sportswire/Getty Images
Julia Alexander
February 24, 2026

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Major League Baseball’s regular season is an unwieldy monster: 30 teams play a total of 2,430 games over eight-ish months, which makes it almost impossible for even the most obsessive fans to keep up with the action. And when the season starts on March 25, things are going to get even more complicated, following commissioner Rob Manfred’s three-year, $550 million rights deal that will route all new subscribers to MLB.TV—the league’s 24-year-old dexstination for all out-of-market games—through ESPN.

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