ESPN may no longer have the “Sunday Night Baseball” rights, but MLB games are nonetheless poised to look the same on the Worldwide Leader in Sports this summer. After all, can a schedule truly be “reimagined" if it has the same four or five teams?
ESPN unveiled part of its 2026 MLB schedule this week, which will primarily have Monday, Wednesday and Thursday games beginning in mid-April. The network will also air select Saturday and Sunday games, as well as the Little League Classic on Aug. 23. Of the 30 games that ESPN and ABC will air this year, only 11 have been announced; the rest will be determined two weeks prior.
Unsurprisingly, though, most of the confirmed games feature many teams we’ve gotten used to seeing on ESPN: both New York teams, the Red Sox, the Dodgers, the Cubs and so forth. What a shocker.
ESPN’s MLB schedule proves the network doesn’t care about bringing in new fans
Look, no one will deny that the Yankees, Red Sox and Dodgers bring attention. Fans want to see Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani. A Yankees–Red Sox game is almost always a ratings hit, although the rivalry arguably doesn’t have the same bitter, intense feeling that it did 20 years ago.
Would it have been too much to ask, though, for ESPN and ABC to work some different teams into the rotation? Where are the Mariners, who came one game shy of their first pennant last year? What about the Blue Jays? Even if ESPN would prefer to air games in the U.S., it’s not like the Blue Jays don’t play half of their games outside of Canada.
ESPN also failed to read the room when it comes to promoting the game’s current stars. Yes, Ronald Acuña Jr. and the Braves have two games, but the Pirates and Tigers have none. Why not take a risk and list them now, hoping that Paul Skenes or Tarik Skubal will pitch that night? Besides, the Tigers have reached the playoffs in consecutive years for the first time in over a decade.
Some might counter that the flex scheduling could allow for other, smaller–market teams to get an opportunity on national television. For the sake of conversation, let’s look at the leaguewide schedule on Thursday, June 11. There are 10 games that day, with five in the afternoon. If the Diamondbacks and Marlins are hovering around .500, I’m still skeptical that ESPN would pick that game rather than Cardinals–Mets. Who cares about Corbin Carroll or Xavier Edwards when you can get Francisco Lindor or Juan Soto on your screen?
NBC has already shown that it’s learning from ESPN’s mistakes
Compare ESPN’s approach to NBC and Peacock, which announced its full MLB schedule earlier this year. NBC and Peacock’s “Sunday Night Baseball” schedule features 14 of the league’s 30 teams in the 11 games before Labor Day. None of the AL East teams are slated to appear on “Sunday Night Baseball” during that span, but the Pirates, Guardians, and Angels are.
Granted, eight of the first 11 games will exclusively air on Peacock before NBC takes over the primary broadcast on May 31. That’s when the schedule starts featuring more of the Yankees, Mets, Dodgers, and so forth. However, the “MLB Sunday Leadoff” schedule, which will almost exclusively air on Peacock, includes teams like the Nationals, Marlins, Rays, and Twins.
At least NBC is trying something different, though. Seven teams will play at least twice on NBC’s “Sunday Night Baseball” during those initial 11 games, but only the Tigers have three games.
That’s a much different approach than the one that ESPN took last year, when it had 10 teams in the first 11 games of last year’s “Sunday Night Baseball” schedule. However, the Dodgers appeared in four of them. The Mets and Phillies both had three, and another four teams had two.
We just threw a lot of numbers your way, and for good reason. Even if you take the cynical approach that NBC is putting the lesser teams on Peacock, that doesn’t change the fact that clubs which typically never got attention on ESPN are finally getting that opportunity. NBC understands what ESPN never did: Exposure to different teams helps the league grow and increases the chances that more viewers will tune in. Not that ESPN has ever seemed to care about that, not when it’s easier to rant about LeBron James or the NFL.