CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Guardians are on the move again — at least as far as their new TV home is concerned.
ESPN announced Wednesday that it has purchased from MLB the exclusive in-market streaming rights to the Guardians, Padres, Mariners, Twins, Diamondbacks and Rockies. For 2026, the Guardians games will still be available on MLB platforms in addition to the ESPN app.
MLB produced Guardians’ games last season after FanDuel Network failed to re-sign them for 2025. FanDuel was formerly known as Bally Sports, which was run by Diamond Sports Group.
ESPN’s purchase of the six teams MLB produced last year is part of a much bigger three-year deal. The ESPN portion of the deal will pay MLB a reported $1.65 billion.
MLB also reached three-year deals with NBCUniversal and Netflix.
NBC, not ESPN, will be the new home of Sunday Night Baseball. NBC will also carry the wild card series, the first hour of the MLB Draft and the Futures Game during the All-Star Game festivities.
Netflix, not ESPN, will carry the Home Run Derby, the first regular season game of the 2026 season and the Field of Dreams Game. It will also deliver all 47 World Baseball Classic Games to its audience in Japan.
NBC will pay MLB an estimated $200 million a year, while the Netflix deal is worth $50 million a year.
The deal gives ESPN the right to stream out-of-market games for all 30 teams on its app.
“Our new media rights agreements with ESPN, NBCUniversal and Netflix provide us with a great opportunity to expand our reach to fans through three powerful destinations for live sports, entertainment and marquee events,” said Commissioner Robert Manfred. “Following our last World Series game that averaged more than 51 million viewers globally, these partnerships build on MLB’s growing momentum.”
Fox and Fox Sports 1 will continue to carry the All-Star Game as well as regular season games, the World Series, League Championship Games and Division Series games. The same goes for TBS, while Apple TV will carry games on Friday night in the regular season.
For Guardians fans, not much is expected to change in 2026. The way fans watched the Guardians win the AL Central this year, should follow the same path in 2026.
ESPN will serve as an additional distribution partner for streaming Guardians games. The Guardians will still be available on cable, DirecTV and MLB platforms.
The TV team of Matt Underwood, Rick Manning and Andre Knott is expected to stay the same.
There could be changes following the 2026 season, but current Guardians customers will not face an additional fee to watch games in the upcoming season.
It’s unclear if the new TV deal could help the Guardians increase their player payroll this winter or beyond. The financial terms appear similar to the previous arrangement before MLB opted out of its deal with ESPN in February.
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