The MLB regular season returns Thursday night with one game, and the Mets-Phillies matchup is a window that ESPN pushed to keep when negotiating a new media-rights deal coming into 2026.
“When we were building out and trying to look at how we wanted to focus on our linear schedule, we always find tentpoles important because it gives you … something to talk about,” said Ashley O’Connor, ESPN’s VP/Programming & Acquisitions. “The second-half opener is our second tentpole this season [after Memorial Day]. You’ve just gotten off the excitement of the All-Star Game, trade deadline’s right around the corner and it’s really a renewed time to say, ‘OK, let’s go.’”
O’Connor said ESPN is enjoying its flexibility with the new deal after years of primarily having “Sunday Night Baseball” during the regular season. That has included having games on ABC, such as a Yankees-Red Sox Saturday afternoon window in June.
“We’re able to pivot and really make sure that we’re following the storylines and the teams that are relevant right now,” O’Connor said, “and you can only do that with the flexibility that we were able to work with baseball to achieve in this schedule.”
The addition of MLB.TV to the ESPN app also was a crucial element of the new ESPN-MLB deal, and, according to O’Connor, it is “performing exactly how we anticipated” in Year 1.
