MLB Eyes Realignment, Expansion As Media Shake-Up Looms

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.