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Will this season be the end for MLB on ESPN? Karl Ravech and the ‘Sunday Night Baseball’ crew would like to think not.
“Given this near four-decade relationship we have with Major League Baseball, [I hope] that in the end, that’s enough to get us to work something out.”
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Maybe they are in denial. Maybe they have somehow found more than a few strands of hope to cling to tightly. Maybe it’s just what it takes to focus on the job ahead.
But talent on ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball” is maintaining outward optimism that the network and Major League Baseball can mend and maintain a working relationship beyond this lame-duck season of broadcasts.
“That’s way above my pay grade and our pay grade to kind of negotiate that, but I’m very optimistic about ESPN and Major League Baseball’s future,” said Karl Ravech, the Needham native who is in his 32nd year at ESPN and fourth as the “Sunday Night Baseball” play-by-play voice.
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Added David Cone, who along with Eduardo Perez is an analyst on the broadcast: “As far as the long-term future, we try to bring value . . . If we keep bringing value, we feel like we’re going to continue to sell ourselves as a group, as a crew, and there will be a place for that. For that kind of value, there will be a place for that in the future.”
For now, that future is beyond murky. In February, ESPN exercised an opt-out of the final three years and $550 million per year remaining on its rights deal with MLB, in part because the network did not feel it was getting its money’s worth after the league depreciated the regular season by agreeing to an assortment of streaming deals that served to frustrate fans more than anything else.
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It was not a surprise that ESPN opted out. It was portrayed as a mutual split, but any chance for MLB to save face was lost when commissioner Rob Manfred pettily referred to ESPN as a “shrinking platform” in an email to team owners, per the reporting of The Athletic’s Evan Drellich.
Perhaps something can be salvaged. “Sunday Night Baseball” had its highest viewership last season since 2019, up 6 percent over 2023, and MLB does not have an obvious suitor willing to pay close to what ESPN was shelling out. It is possible, however, that MLB ultimately divides ESPN’s rights among multiple networks and streaming services.
As the new season — and potentially the last season of live MLB games on a network that gave us such gems as Jon Miller’s stellar play-by-play, Tim Kurkjian’s enthusiasm, a wonderful year of Terry Francona as an analyst, Peter Gammons’s insights, and a “Baseball Tonight” theme song you can probably hear in your head right now — begins, Ravech and his partners are going to do their jobs to the best of their abilities until the final good or bad news comes.
“Our goal is to continue to do what I think we do better than anybody, which is to present the game in an entertaining, enjoyable way,” said Ravech. “It’s a Sunday night for most people, which means work the next day. It’s a way to ease them into their workweek by having fun.
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“I don’t think ESPN being in what may be its final year of ‘Sunday Night Baseball’ becomes any part of our story. Our story is to tell the story of the players and the teams. That stuff is way in the back of my mind. I’m not thinking about that or worried about it. There are very smart people that are trying to figure out ways to move forward with Major League Baseball. I know our president [Jimmy Pitaro] has expressed a great interest in maintaining a long relationship with the sport.”
Ravech said he has hope for two main reasons: ESPN’s long, if currently bruised, relationship with MLB — the network broadcast its first live games in 1990 — and its broad coverage across the spectrum of sports.
“I just think the platform itself makes itself so valuable, and given this near four-decade relationship we have with Major League Baseball, [I hope] that in the end, that’s enough to get us to work something out,” said Ravech.
“And when you think about the entities that are on that flagship, if you’re a sports fan, you’re going to want to have it. If the sports fan in general largely wants to have it, whether it be for the Super Bowl, whether it be for the NFL, the NBA, tennis, golf, college championships, the NHL, Stanley Cup, basically every single color in the crayon box, it would behoove I think any other sport to want to be on that platform.
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“Or, to simplify it, if you’re trying to get on Noah’s Ark before it leaves and you see every other animal on there, you’ll probably want to make sure you’re on there before it leaves and you’re not.”
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