The reaction continues to pour in just days after news broke that ESPN and Major League Baseball (MLB) decided to mutually opt out of the remaining three years of their exclusive broadcast rights agreement following the 2025 season. In a letter sent to baseball owners, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred explained that the league was not pleased with the “minimal coverage” it received on ESPN’s platforms over the past couple of years, aside from live play-by-play coverage.
Manfred emphasized that it was MLB’s decision to opt out of the contract, while ESPN’s release stated the opposite, citing a focus on discipline and fiscal responsibility for their decision. Although the two parties appear to be at polar opposites right now, it remains to be seen whether they will reach any sort of broadcasting rights agreement before the start of the next baseball season.
ESPN play-by-play announcer Jon “Boog” Sciambi, who serves as the primary voice of Sunday Night Baseball and ESPN Radio, also calls Chicago Cubs play-by-play for Marquee Sports Network during the season. Recently, Sciambi appeared as a guest on Spiegel & Holmes on Chicago’s 670 The Score and shared his opinion on the opt-out, stating that he believes baseball is making a mistake.
“Look, the league (MLB) made a mistake,” Sciambi said in his first public comments on the matter. “It was a major mistake, because if they hadn’t opted out, MLB would have been locked into $550 million this year, plus two or three more years.”
Sciambi joined ESPN full-time in 2010 as the play-by-play voice for MLB on ESPN Radio. At the same time, he continued his role as a commentator for college basketball and MLB on ESPN, which he had done since 2005. Additionally, Sciambi is a featured voice in ESPN and ESPN Radio’s coverage of the MLB Wild Card, LDS, LCS, and World Series broadcasts.
When looking at both sides and considering who might need whom more, Sciambi pointed out that MLB could face some challenges with viewership if it were to lose ESPN.
“I think the league probably needs ESPN a little bit more than vice versa,” Sciambi said. “I think whatever you want to say about ESPN and how it’s changed, and even if you don’t like it as much as you used to, it is still the place that sports fans go to watch games.”
Sciambi also referenced the NHL’s departure from ESPN following the 2004-2005 lockout, when the league signed a rights agreement with NBC and OLN (later renamed Versus and then NBC Sports Network). He explained that this decision caused the NHL’s visibility to “disappear off the face of the planet,” suggesting MLB should be concerned about its own viewership.
“It’s a fact that if you put the exact same event on at the exact same time on ESPN, TBS, and TNT, it will rate higher every single time on ESPN. Because it just has more reach,” Sciambi stated during his appearance on 670 The Score.
Nevertheless, the voice of baseball on ESPN Radio expressed excitement about calling games for another year on ESPN Radio, eagerly anticipating another thrilling baseball season.
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