MLB brings back standalone Opening Night game, but network TBD

KANSAS CITY, MO - MARCH 27: A view of the scoreboard showing Opening Day 2025 before an MLB game between the Cleveland Guardians and Kansas City Royals on March 27, 2025 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, MO. (Photo by Scott Winters/Icon Sportswire)

Major League Baseball will open next season with a rare standalone Opening Night game, though it is anybody’s guess where it will air.

MLB announced Tuesday that its 2026 season will begin with the Yankees facing the Giants in a standalone Opening Night game on Wednesday, March 25. MLB did not announce a time or channel, but ESPN — which holds rights to Opening Day under its expiring rights deal — is occupied that night with an NBA doubleheader.

There has been no indication of where Opening Day games will end up under the new media rights deals that MLB is currently negotiating. Per the latest reporting, “Sunday Night Baseball” and Wild Card playoff games are expected to go to NBCUniversal and the Home Run Derby to Netflix, with ESPN getting a new package of exclusive national games, MLB.tv and local rights to five clubs. But the current ESPN deal also includes a handful of weeknight games, including Opening Day, that may or may not be spoken for.

The most sensible outcome is that those additional weeknight games are included in the “Sunday Night Baseball” portion of the package and would air on NBCU.

Not counting international games, Yankees-Giants will mark MLB’s first standalone Opening Night game since 2015 — when the season opened with Cardinals-Cubs on ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball.” It will be the first Opening Night with fewer than three games scheduled since the COVID-shortened season of 2020, which opened in mid-July with a doubleheader of Yankees-Nationals and Giants-Dodgers.

The March 25 date allows MLB to avoid direct competition with the NCAA men’s basketball tournament regional semifinals, which have unsurprisingly dominated Opening Day games in the ratings the past few years.

The 28 other MLB clubs are set to open their season on March 26.

With ESPN a virtual lock to lose “Sunday Night Baseball” after this season, MLB did not mention its annual “Little League Classic” in its schedule release announcement Tuesday. Even if ESPN continues to air exclusive games on another night of the week, it is not clear that it would be logistically feasible to schedule the event on a night other than Sunday.

Tags: MLB on ESPN MLB on NBC/Peacock MLB Schedule News

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Comments 14

Richard W says:

1 year ago

Thinking FOX will air the special event games like the Little League Classic and maybe Opening Night and the Field of Dreams Game for those remaining three years left on the current deal and then it’s all fair game after 2028, but don’t be surprised if NBC gets the Opening Night game and a few other special event-type games as part of this [supposedly] new deal which still hasn’t been announced or finalized as of yet and it could change even more so as the days progress maybe with another TV partner. We shall see.
Samuel says:

1 year ago

I’m completely lost with these new MLB deals. No clue where anything will be next season. As for starting on that date, that’s just way too random. A Wednesday night in March for a standalone game that during March Madness and the end of the NBA and NHL regular seasons, no one will even know exists. Especially if it’s on NBC, a channel that hasn’t been connected to baseball in over 25 years and not on a serious level in almost 40 years.
Rick James Bible Owner says:

1 year ago

Manfred needs to step in front of the mic and announce all these deals, but it’s good to speculate (for us, anyway). NBC gets the grand Opening Night to announce their presence, then (if as expected) ESPN gets 2-3 Opening Day games (Red Sox-Reds or maybe Skenes vs. Mets, Tigers-Padres (with the Fathers under their DTC umbrella), and maybe the Banner Night, depending on who wins the Commissioner’s Trophy). I don’t know if ESPN gets Holidays again, but not the 4th of July (Fox’s domain). 2026 Memorial Day May 25 possibilities aren’t great (Reds-Mets, Cubs-Pirates, Yankees-Royals), neither is Labor Day’s on September 7 (Braves-Phillies, Cubs-Brewers, Reds-Dodgers) Also, most Opening Day matchups, home openers, & Holiday matchups aren’t blockbusters because of the higher than normal attendances. Why waste Red Sox-Yankees on Opening Day/Night for TV when you’re guaranteed fannies in the seats? Also, I’ll probably be banned here for all the shots I’ve taken at the moribund Minnesota Twins the last 8-9 months (that or all the parentheticals), but congrats on the Field of Dreams game against the Phils, if all reports are correct. Maybe Walker Jenkins is up by then so it’s not just Byron Buxton & Luke Keaschall.
lenny says:

1 year ago

According to Japan media , Netflix pay 15 billion JPY(=$100M) to secure Japan WBC broadcasdt right wow
JEFF E HIRSCHMAN says:

1 year ago

I never would have thought that the MLB schedule would start 3 months after Christmas!
Jtk1 says:

1 year ago

I am finally glad that the new schedule has come out. That said, I am a bit surprised that we will have 1 game by itself on the Wednesday, the day before everyone else does, but my guess is it was will probably be on NBC, to get people to know that they will be having games, because to the casual fan , they might have no idea, then I would put 3 games on ESPN on the actual Opening Day the next day. But if I was making the schedule, I would start at least 2 weeks later, why? Because there would be less chance of cold weather or snow in the northern cities, plus it is usually still warm enough in October, plus that way we would have a November World Series, which would be a plus to FOX, because I know that is a sweeps month.
Nate Johnson says:

1 year ago

With current deals and upcoming deals expecting to end at the end of the 2028 season, I do wonder if this is a one season deal. 2026 Season will have the World Baseball Classic and Tokyo is one of the hosting countries. The reason I bring that up is because I have a difficult time believing that MLB* will go away from Tokyo series. Dodgers, MLB, and Shohei Ohtani are the main reasons why. Ohtani wants to play a couple of games in his home country I’m sure. MLB wants to grow their brand internationally. Dodgers is pursuing competition against the Yankees in international marketing. 2028 will likely be the real question of that. 2027, hard to wonder if the season will begin on normal time.

I know the Tokyo made many baseball fans in the United States disappointed, and at least I see similarity from football fans having those thoughts about College Football season beginning in Ireland, but this news casts doubt on an actual MLB season beginning in the United States for the remainder of Ohtani’s career barring Lockouts and during a World Baseball Classic year.

*Did I use correct grammar, Brian in SoCal?
- ds says:
  
  1 year ago
  
  I agree, Japan seems like a strong growth opportunity for MLB viewership and associated rights revenues. Japan is a large, affluent country where many people already enjoy baseball. Several MLB teams have star Japanese players. I would think MLB would want to lean into that with at least a few games each year in Japan
- Brian in SoCal says:
  
  1 year ago
  
  I wouldn’t say calling it “the MLB” is bad grammar. It’s bad usage. Nevertheless, I approve your latest post. Keep up the fine work.
  
  Jon, is it still true that NCAA regional semifinals dominate MLB Opening Day games when you aggregate the local MLB audiences for the 15 openers in the home and away markets?
  - Jon Lewis says:
    
    1 year ago
    
    Impossible to say given lack of local MLB data. I’m sure that when you add it all up, MLB fares quite a bit better … but that wouldn’t do anything to help an NBC or an ESPN in that head to head.
Cosmo says:

1 year ago

Typo alert: the other 28 clubs open on March 26 (not 28). 🙂
- Jon Lewis says:
  
  1 year ago
  
  Thanks for catching that.
ESL says:

1 year ago

About time MLB did something right. I think they realize the need to “nationalize” the sport for new media rights deals. No more relying on the RSNs. I just saw the full MLB schedule for 2026 has been released. Have to expect the final media rights to be announced in the next day or so (Should be before the holiday weekend).
Fred W says:

1 year ago

Never understood why MLB doesn’t start the year with great match-ups the opening series like the NFL and NBA. Yankees @ San Francisco is so random. You might as well start the season with a Cincinnati home game like they used to do, at least that has tradition. Or until early Nov and give that game to the champion.