The Mariners are planning to shutter Root Sports at the end of 2025, with Major League Baseball to take over the club’s broadcasts in 2026. Details of the club announcement were relayed by Adam Jude and Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times.
“We continue to focus on finding new ways to bring our games in 2026 and beyond to our fans and we’ve determined joining with Major League Baseball is the best path,” reads a team statement, relayed by Divish. “Beginning in 2026 and moving forward, Major League Baseball will provide opportunities to bring new features and benefits to viewers of Mariners baseball. We are incredibly grateful for the dedication and excellence demonstrated by the Root Sports staff over the (nearly) four decades they have televised our games.” Jude relays that dozens of Root employees have been informed that they will be laid off on November 3rd but the broadcast team is expected to remain largely the same.
Regional sports networks (RSNs) have become an increasingly important part of baseball discussions in recent years. For a time, RSN deals were a reliable source of millions of dollars for teams. But cord cutting has led to a collapse of the RSN model, though not for all teams. Broadly speaking, the bigger teams like the Yankees and Dodgers are still in fine shape. Most large market clubs own their RSNs, in whole or in part, and still do quite well.
The Mariners tried to go down this road. In the 2023-2024 offseason, they took 100% control of Root Sports. They had previously owned 71% of the company but assumed the remaining 29% from Warner Bros. Discovery. The channel also carried the broadcasts of the NHL’s Seattle Kraken and the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers. They also carried the NBA’s Utah Jazz in some markets and some college basketball games involving schools in the Pacific Northwest.
Two years later, it seems the M’s have decided to go under the MLB umbrella. They won’t be the first. MLB took over the broadcasts of the Padres, Diamondbacks and Rockies in 2024 as those clubs saw their RSN deals collapse. The Twins and Guardians joined that list in 2025.
With those arrangements, fans who watched on traditional television setups were largely unaffected. The games are still on television with the personnel mostly unchanged. The setup also opened the possibility for fans to pay for a blackout-free streaming package, ordered directly from MLB.
For the club, it’s generally agreed that these arrangements are less lucrative than the previous RSN contracts. For the Mariners, they may be sacrificing some gross revenue but they are saving lots of money by getting rid of the costs of operating Root. It’s difficult to get a read on the full financial picture from the outside but the Mariners presumably feel this is a better arrangement for them. That may impact the club’s player payroll this winter, though further reporting should shed more light on that over time.
It was reported last month that ESPN had struck a deal with MLB, acquiring various elements for 2026 and beyond, including the in-market rights of the five clubs currently handled by MLB. It’s unclear how that will change things going forward. ESPN is launching a streaming service, so fans in those markets may have to deal with that company instead of MLB. With the MLB now taking on Seattle’s rights, it’s unclear if MLB will pivot and include them in that ESPN deal.
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred is hoping to acquire the rights to all 30 clubs by the end of the 2028 season. MLB’s various national deals with companies like Fox and Turner all expire after that season. The same is true of other pacts with companies like Netflix and NBC/Peacock. Going into 2029, it’s theoretically possible that Manfred could market almost all MLB broadcast rights in one mega package, or split them up into smaller packages to be sold to multiple companies. Whether he can pull that off remains to be seen but this news pries loose one more club.
Photo courtesy of John Froschauer, Imagn Images