On a humid, mid-August afternoon just outside of New York City, MLB Network host Greg Amsinger is looking ahead to what he believes will be greatest day of baseball this year. A long-awaited rematch between Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani, along with two momentous winning streaks across the country, are the evidence to support his claim.
Amsinger, preparing for his role as host of the first-year “MLB Tonight: National Pregame Show” on MLB Network, is looking through the schedule to compile a fluid rundown that aims to highlight every team in action. Leading in are afternoon baseball games on two feeds visible to different locales across the country, and the national pregame edition of “MLB Tonight” stood at the ready for a final out.
With the “B-net” game ending before the other matchup, Amsinger presented this subset of viewers with a live look-in as Arizona Diamondbacks infielder Ketel Marte slashed a go-ahead home run with two outs in the ninth inning. Amsinger has a knack for anchoring big moments, though the pregame edition of “MLB Tonight” is largely based on previews rather than recaps or reactions.
“You can dream [of] a day where what you see on ‘FOX NFL Sunday’ is a seven-day-a-week dream for Major League Baseball — where the national pregame show is leading up to your game, which is coming up after the break,” Amsinger said. “By the time these [local media rights deals] deals come up and we start getting more regionals and teams to join us for their production, we want to be a trusted pregame voice.”
With the Ch. 11 bankruptcy of then-Diamond Sports Group creating ambiguity around the future of regional sports networks, MLB picked up local rights to five teams that were cast out of the RSN model during the proceedings. For the 2025 season, the league produces and disseminates games for five franchises as it seeks to centralize its media strategy when its national deals expire in 2028.
“For Major League Baseball, kudos to them to go outside the box and not pay attention to what other leagues are doing and realizing that they have the holy grail, which is live sports content,” Amsinger said. “They have the most of it of any sport there is, and the fact that we’ve created this national pregame show to let the entire national audience know that we’re there for your team and getting ahead of it now, I think the staying power is immense.”
The Game Plan for a New Series
Marc Caiafa, the senior vice president of production at MLB Network, says he did not envision the national pregame show as a model for the future.
“I think we’ll be well positioned, but right now, I can’t speak on how the teams are going to treat the local pre and posts that they have,” Caiafa said. “I just know that we’ll be ready to do anything.”
The broad distribution of MLB Network has waned significantly over the last decade amid cord cutting and the rise of direct-to-consumer technology, reaching approximately 32 million homes, according to estimates from Nielsen Media Research. MLB Network introduced a direct-to-consumer product last July and could reportedly be included on the new ESPN DTC service as part of a larger media rights deal with the company. In addition, the outlet continues to produce content for social media and evergreen podcasts that air on the weekends hosted by network personalities.
“When it first launched, I can tell you I was pleasantly surprised with the initial results of the [MLB Network] DTC,” Caiafa said. “I’m sure it’ll have its ebbs and flows and whatnot though, but it just shows that when people want to get their baseball, they want to come here.”
The network revamped its programming lineup in March with the pregame “MLB Tonight” and a one-hour simulcast of “The Leadoff Spot” from SiriusXM while retaining most of its other studio shows. Aside from the end of “High Heat” last fall, the MLB Network schedule has demonstrated consistency over the last three years and subsequently fostered an established rhythm. There are different offerings throughout the day that, while remaining centered on baseball, provide a multitude of options.
“Technically, you could do some semblance of “The Leadoff Spot” in other areas and other shows,” Caiafa said. “You could do that, but it’s not something we’ve ever considered because it’s what we were built on. It’s built on just having the freedom to analyze — overanalyze at times — but really dive into topics, and we don’t want any limitations to that, and we’ve never had them and we never will.”
The Starting Lineup
The “MLB Central” morning show has been on the air for more than a decade, and the trio of Mark DeRosa, Lauren Shehadi and Robert Flores, which debuted in 2018, recently celebrated 1,000 episodes working together. With a roster of accomplished major-league players who contribute to the show, some of whom include Albert Pujols, Sean Casey and Al Leiter, the program dissects esoteric aspects of hitting, pitching and fielding through granular breakdowns while presenting an affable, conversational vibe.
“They just let us be, and that’s the beauty of television, right?,” Shehadi said. “That’s the magic that everyone’s trying to find – just people being themselves – and that’s kind of what we thrive off of.”
The show emanates from the 8,000 square-foot Studio 21 located in an auxiliary building within the network complex in Secaucus, N.J. Featuring various LED displays, banners displaying the league standings and an aesthetic honoring the Hall of Fame outfielder Roberto Clemente, there is a wide variety of moving parts during a given show. As the program moves to its final segment on the distinct red couch, the “MLB Now” desk is already set up with Brian Kenny, Russell Dorsey and Ron Darling preparing for showtime.
“We couldn’t do it without the support of the league and our bosses and the executives here,” Flores said. “I think they value what we do and the content that we create. Look, no one is creating more and quality of content about the game than we are, than the people, the men and women in this building.”
As morning turns to afternoon, Kenny is examining why the Los Angeles Dodgers are suddenly in a tight divisional race using sabermetric trends. In reflecting on the program he has hosted since 2013, Kenny describes the venture as “nutrient dense” and appreciates how the show can probe the modern game while honoring the past.
“If we went away, there’d just be nobody doing it,” Kenny said, “but we can take an overview of the entire industry, look at changes in tactics, look at changes in roster utilization, in the financial part of the game, and I think it’s great for the industry.”
Siera Santos is in her third season hosting “Intentional Talk” alongside Kevin Millar and Ryan Dempster, and they currently have a group chat spanning a year that takes up more than 5.7 gigabytes of phone storage. The trio presents the game with cogent analysis with a comedic, informal twist that oftentimes unearths and spotlights player personalities, regularly limiting the amount of questions directly related to baseball during interviews. Santos is the only on-air talent hosting from Studio K, formerly a mailroom and storage area, but she retains a strong rapport with her colleagues dispersed across the country.
“[I]f a producer comes in who’s not used to doing the show and they’re like, ‘Oh, I feel like we’re light,’ I’m like, ‘We are never light on this show,'” Santos explained. “We are always going to come in and we’ll go over most of the time because there’s always something to talk about, and it’s always something silly.”
Occupying the Hot Corner
The network currently functions as the production arm for local broadcasts produced and disseminated by the MLB Local Media division, providing assets such as graphics, speciality elements, feature pieces and more. It also supplies rain-delay programming with shows such as “MLB Big Inning,” which presents four games simultaneously through a quad-box format. In addition to these broadcasts, MLB Network assists Apple TV+ and Roku in their presentations while also housing studios and operations for NHL Network. “The Rink,” as the primary hockey space is called, is located just across the hallway from Studio 21.
“When we first started, we were very much MLB Network and the linear channel,” Caiafa explained. “Now, we’ve evolved into what I would say is a baseball powerhouse, but a powerhouse that can also provide content for anything that comes our way in the sports world, i.e., the NHL. We do a tremendous job for the NHL, and I think that’s saying something that another major sports would have us and entrust us with promoting their sport in the best possible way on a daily basis.”
MLB Network continues to have the backing of the league despite other league-owned entities being sold within larger transactions. ESPN is set to acquire NFL Network upon approval of a non-binding agreement that also gives the NFL a 10% equity stake in the company.
On the hardwood, the National Basketball Association will bring NBA TV in house starting in October after TNT Sports had been programming and operating the channel since 2008. It remains unknown how the severed affiliation could impact the content itself as the league enters new 11-year media rights deals with Disney, Comcast and Amazon.
Matt Vasgersian, who hosts the late edition of “MLB Tonight” and has been with the network since its launch in 2009, values Major League Baseball and its relationship with the channel. Vasgersian has witnessed the evolution in programming and been part of studio shows and live game telecasts across several dayparts.
“I can’t imagine doing this with the league looking at you in any other way,” Vasgersian said. “We’re serving the sport. That’s the thing that we’re not just serving the league, we’re serving the sport, so it’s players, it’s owners, it’s fans, it’s the sport. It’s not just the brand that is the league.”
As Vasgersian works with former MLB catcher Anthony Recker on “MLB Tonight,” Abby Labar is in the office getting ready to take the air for “Quick Pitch.” Labar is in her second year anchoring the program, which has remnants of “This Week in Baseball” and aspects of “NFL RedZone,” making it accessible in an era of dwindling attention spans and preferences for short-form content.
“We’re kind of adapting to that world of just taking normal highlights and recap shows and putting a little bit of a twist on them,” Labar said, “and I think ‘Quick Pitch’ does a really good job at just bringing entertainment and catering to the audience.”
Headed for a New Home
Major League Baseball has had ownership and oversight of MLB Network from the beginning, and it is investing in the entity through the construction of new studios located in Elmwood Park, nearby Secaucus. While the Secaucus complex laid the groundwork and accommodated production advancements and upgrades, this new hub, set to open in three years, is going to yield even more possibilities.
“This building has been tremendous for us, but we’re at a point where we’ve exhausted everything not only space wise, but technically,” Caiafa said. “Now, this new building will give us the ability to expand on the technical side, but also studio wise as well.”
There have been various criticisms of baseball over the years as the sport looks to reach a younger demographic, but the game is continuing to flourish. Recent rule changes have hastened pace of play and augmented offensive output, and the league has also been registering strong attendance at the ballpark. Viewership is up, with MLB Network announcing this past June double-digit gains for several studio shows and Showcase telecasts.
“There’s a standard here that you just can’t come on the air and just talk about the results. You’ve got to know the players of your game, you’ve got to know rosters,” Caiafa said. “I’m not saying you got to know who’s playing third base in Double A for the Rockies or the Pirates, but you damn well better know who the players are on the rosters in the major leagues and you know who they are and what they’re capable of doing on a daily basis.”
MLB Network can resemble an anomaly of sorts entrenched within a media industry trying to balance consumer needs with meeting the bottom line. Outside of the network, there is a dearth of national baseball-focused content on linear television. Although the future of league-owned networks as standalone entities remains uncertain, MLB Network has been constructed on providing a streamlined forum for dedicated baseball coverage, looking at the present-day game while honoring the past and anticipating future developments.
“If you’re looking for a lot of negativity, it’s probably the [wrong] channel to tune into, but that’s what we’re not trying to come across is negativity,” Plesac said. “It’s a great game, it’s still a great game. There are more eyeballs on it, more people than ever. There’s a lot more good going on than the little bits of bad.”
