ATLANTA — Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred says the sport is in better position to reach national broadcasting agreements for 2026-28 after he attended the annual Allen & Co. Conference of media and finance leaders in Idaho.
ESPN said in February it was ending after this season its agreement to broadcast Sunday night games, the All-Star Home Run Derby and the Wild Card Series. MLB's other agreements, with Fox and TBS, run through the 2028 season, and MLB wants all its national broadcast contracts to end at the same time.
Manfred said in early June he hoped to reach a deal before the All-Star break.
“I had a great week last week. I was in Sun Valley,” he told the Baseball Writers' Association of America on Tuesday. “I had a lot of conversations that moved us significantly closer to a deal and I don’t believe it’s going to be long.”
MLB has been starting to assemble local rights and this season is producing and distributing broadcasts of Arizona, Cleveland, Colorado, Minnesota and San Diego.
“I think it’s very important, in fact, crucial, that when we go to the market for our post-'28 deals, that we have the ability to say to our broadcast partners: We have all these rights, what have traditionally been our national, what have traditionally have been our local, let’s cut them up in a way that is the best in terms of reaching our fans and maximizing our revenue," he said. “And I think in an environment that’s as disrupted as the current media environment, that kind of flexibility is absolutely crucial.”
“I see the MLB media operating of clubs as an interim arrangement to get us to 2028,” he added. “It’s not a goal that I’m pursuing in and of itself. Rather, it is an interim step for clubs that we happen to provide the best alternative given what’s happened in the local markets.”
Manfred describes broadcast rights and the collective bargaining agreement as key factors in franchise values. The economic study committee established two years ago has looked into those issues.
“It was never a mask for labor,” Manfred said. “It was a process designed to think through why, what about our economic system has put us in a position where our franchise values have not grown as quickly as some other sports and try to figure out how we might fix that.”
Tampa Bay, controlled by Stuart Sternberg since October 2005, said last month it had entered exclusive discussions for a sale to a group led by Patrick Zalupski, Bill Cosgrove and Ken Babby, and The Athletic reported Monday that a sale is expected to be finalized by September.
“I have no reason to quibble with or dispute the reports that have been out there,” Manfred said.
Because of damage caused to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg last October by Hurricane Milton, the Rays are playing home games this season at Steinbrenner Field, the New York Yankees spring training facility in Tampa.
“We think we’re going to be ready to play in ‘26 in the Trop,” Manfred said, adding that there are contingency plans to start the season elsewhere before moving to Tropicana Field later in the year if the stadium isn’t ready by opening day. He didn't say what the contingency plans were.
The Pohlad family announced last October it was exploring a sale of the team, which the family has controlled since 1984. Justin Ishbia, a brother of Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia, was thought to be interested, but the Chicago White Sox announced last month he was becoming a limited partner in a deal that could allow him to become the controlling owner.
“A big part of the delay in Minnesota was associated with the leader in clubhouse making the decision to do something else,” Manfred said. “There will be a transaction. You just need to be patient while they rework.”
Moving from Oakland, the Athletics are playing the first of what the team says will be three seasons at a Triple-A ballpark in West Sacramento.
“If I had a brand new gleaming stadium to move them into, we would have done that,” Manfred said. “Right now it is my expectation that they will play in Sacramento until they move to Las Vegas."
Manfred addressed MLB's efforts to monitor sports gambling, which led in June 2024 to a lifetime ban of San Diego's Tucupita Marcano along with one-year suspensions of four players, the firing of umpire Pat Hoberg in February and a pending probe into Cleveland pitcher Luis Ortiz.
MLB increased efforts after the U.S. Supreme Court in May 2018 struck down a federal law that had barred betting on football, basketball, baseball and other sports in most states.
“I know there was a lot of sports betting, tons of it that went on illegally and we had no idea, no idea what threats there were to the integrity of the play because it was all not transparent," Manfred said. "I firmly believe that the transparency and monitoring that we have in place now, as a result of the legalization and the partnerships that we’ve made, puts us in a better position to protect baseball than we were in before.”
MLB has hoped for legal modifications, including around prop bets.
“There are certain types of bets that strike me as unnecessary and particularly vulnerable, things where it’s one single act doesn’t affect the outcome necessarily,” he added.
MLB removed mention of its diversity from its MLB Careers webpage in March, following the start of the Trump administration.
“Sometimes you have to look at how the world’s changing around you and readjust where you are,” Manfred said. “There were certain aspects of some of our programs that were very, very explicitly race-based and/or gender-based. We know because there were public comments to the effect that people in Washington were aware of that and we felt it was important to recast our programs in a way to make sure that we can continue on with our programs, to continue to pursue the values that we have always adhered to without tripping what could be legal problems that would interfere with that process.”
Manfred mentioned Baltimore, Boston and Toronto as possible future sites for All-Star Games.
Manfred wouldn't speculate whether MLB will try to cut minor league affiliates from 120 to 90 when current Professional Development Licenses expire after the 2030 season.
“There is a lot going on. College baseball's changing big time,” he said. “It’s just impossible for me to speculate but don’t take that as he thinks it’s going to be smaller or bigger.”
