Major League Baseball continues to inch toward a new set of short-term media-rights deals, but those forthcoming pacts could be just the start of even more radical changes coming to the league.

Commissioner Rob Manfred, speaking on ESPN during Sunday night’s MLB Little League Classic in Williamsport, Pa., between the Mariners and Mets, said a set of pacts to redistribute rights being forfeited by ESPN are close to done.

ESPN remains involved as part of a potentially reworked agreement. The Disney-owned network is keen to keep baseball for its forthcoming direct-to-consumer streaming service, with Apple and NBC Sports also part of the ongoing talks. 

“We’re having very detailed conversations with a number of parties, including ESPN,” Manfred said. “We hope to have it resolved in the next couple of weeks. It’s a little bit like a jigsaw puzzle.”

Industry sources tell Front Office Sports that the MLB media talks are indeed “accelerating. It’s definitely getting closer.” It’s also possible that Sunday Night Baseball, a flagship component of the current ESPN rights, could be split among multiple networks. 

A late-August timetable to complete the media agreements could also roughly coincide with the expected release of the 2026 regular-season schedule around then. The deals will be for just the 2026–2028 seasons, as Manfred then intends to pursue a large-scale reconstruction of the sport’s media profile to blend national and local rights. 

Reshuffling the Deck

Manfred, meanwhile, also detailed a grander vision in the ESPN interview about pursuing MLB realignment that would likely do away with the traditional National and American leagues and the current six-division format. 

Geographic realignment and a structure more akin to the NBA and NHL is not a new idea within MLB, and has been internally discussed for years. The commissioner’s comments on national TV, however, gave the notion far greater prominence.

That plan would be paired with the addition of two expansion teams to bring the league to 32 franchises. MLB expansion has long been delayed, due largely to the stadium sagas of the A’s and Rays. Those two situations, however, could at last be headed toward resolution with the A’s now building a new ballpark in Las Vegas and the Rays likely to receive new ownership. 

A series of prospective markets, including Nashville, Salt Lake City, Orlando, and Portland, have openly sought MLB expansion franchises. The league last expanded in 1998 with the addition of the Rays and Diamondbacks. 

“I think if we expand, it provides us with an opportunity to geographically realign,” Manfred said. “I think we could save a lot of wear and tear on our players in terms of travel. And I think our postseason format would be even more appealing for entities like ESPN, because we could be playing out of the east and out of the west.”

Any sort of realignment, however, would need to be collectively bargained with the MLB Players Association. In the immediate term, though, this issue will take a back seat to economic concerns that are a source of rising tension. The realignment concept also interweaves with Manfred’s desire to pursue a more nationally oriented media strategy.

PGA Tour and LIV Golf players cashed nearly $53 million in bonuses Sunday, following the penultimate events of the rival leagues’ respective seasons.

Leading the way was Jon Rahm, who earned $18 million for winning LIV’s individual season-long championship for the second year in a row. Rahm did not win a single tournament all year, but had four runner-up finishes, and his worst result was a tie for 11th in Dallas. 

Joaquin Niemann, who won five LIV tournaments this year, finished second in the points race, taking home an $8 million bonus. However, Niemann beat Rahm on the money list, cashing $22.22 million from LIV tournament winnings alone, with Rahm earning $13.6 million. 

Bryson DeChambeau finished the LIV season in third place in points, good for a $4 million bonus.

LIV’s event in Indianapolis over the weekend wrapped up the individual portion of the season. This coming weekend’s event in Detroit will crown a team champion.

PGA Tour Payouts

The PGA Tour awarded another $22.93 million of FedExCup bonus money following Sunday’s BMW Championship, as part of a restructured distribution model for the season-long competition. This comes after the top 10 PGA Tour players at the end of the regular season earned a collective $60 million in bonus money.

The top five players in the FedExCup standings through Sunday’s penultimate playoff event all cashed seven-figure checks:

• 1st: Scottie Scheffler, $5 million
• 2nd: Rory McIlroy, $3.5 million
• 3rd: J.J. Spaun, $2.6 million
• 4th: Justin Rose, $1.8 million
• 5th: Tommy Fleetwood, $1.45 million

All 30 players who advanced to the Tour Championship earned bonuses ranging from $900,000 for 6th place to $195,000 for 30th. This week’s playoff finale at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta will crown the 2025 FedExCup champion, offering a $40 million purse that will count as official money, not bonus money, for players in yet another change to the PGA Tour’s postseason.

Scheffler Surging

Scheffler won the BMW Championship on Sunday, his fifth victory of the year, taking his official tournament winnings on the season to $23.96 million, and his career earnings (not including bonus money) to $95.75 million, which is now within striking distance of Phil Mickelson ($96.72 million), who is third all-time on the PGA Tour money list. 

Scheffler can pass Mickelson at the Tour Championship if he finishes solo 8th or better. A two-way tie for second place, or higher, would vault Scheffler past the $100 million mark.
Additionally, Scheffler has won $23 million in bonus money this season.

What a difference a week makes for MLB’s top economic and competitive powers.

The Dodgers, Mets, and Yankees, the league’s three biggest payroll spenders and scuffling through surprisingly difficult summers, each have made sizable steps in recent days toward reasserting their power and living up to the lofty expectations placed on them.

After briefly falling into second place in the National League West division for the first time since April, the Dodgers swept the archrival Padres over the weekend at home. Los Angeles, backed by a league-record luxury-tax payroll of $407 million, had been dogged by a series of injuries and on-field woes in which a nine-game division lead evaporated in the span of five weeks. 

“It’s very satisfying, considering where we were [just] four days ago,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Just the way we ramped up the focus, the intensity.”

The Yankees, MLB’s No. 3 payroll team at $316.7 million, have won five of their last six, including a weekend sweep on the road at the Cardinals. 

The $338.7 million Mets, meanwhile, claimed wins both Saturday and Sunday over the surging Mariners. Saturday’s game included the major league debut of highly touted pitching prospect Nolan McLean, who lived up to the hype with eight strikeouts in five and a third scoreless innings. Sunday’s game, meanwhile, included an appearance by MLB commissioner Rob Manfred in the ESPN primetime broadcast of the MLB Little League Classic, in which he detailed large-scale changes contemplated by the league. 

The victories were the Mets’ first consecutive wins in three weeks.

“It feels good,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “We need to start winning series. It’s been rough [and] tough for all of us.”

While the Dodgers remain the clear favorite in betting odds to win the World Series, both the Yankees and Mets improved their respective positions considerably after the recent wins. The New York clubs, however, remain behind a pack of mid- and small-market teams, including the surging Brewers.