While the MLB and MLBPA are still in the midst of a lockout, money negotiations are still happening in terms of broadcast deals for Major League Baseball.

According to the New York Post, Major League Baseball is in talks with Apple about a potential new broadcasting deal to air games on the Apple TV streaming service.

Here’s a portion of what the NY Post had to say. Read the full article here.

“If a deal is finalized, it would represent a significant milestone in sports broadcasting since Apple has long been looked upon as a potential stop for major sports TV rights.“

“The package MLB has been attempting to sell is weekday national games that ESPN recently relinquished. ESPN will no longer have regular Monday and Wednesday games. The ESPN Games were not exclusive in local markets. It is unclear at this point if Apple would be allowed to wall off these select games from regional sports network coverage or not.”

Streaming MLB games hasn’t worked well in the past. Over the last few years, the league tried to stream games on Facebook and YouTube, but honestly, it was pretty annoying trying to find access to the games, especially to the older crowd, which is important to the game of baseball.

Of course, it’s also important to usher in a new generation of baseball fans so offering streaming platforms to carry games isn’t the worst idea in the world. Plus, then we can continue to bully Android users who text with iPhone users with green bubbles because they don’t have AppleTV+.

That in itself is a huge win.

Having more baseball games on national television would take away broadcasts from the local companies, and in that case, would take away games of hearing Tom McCarthy and John Kruk. TMac and Kruk have turned into the voice of the Phillies and taking games away from them throughout the week is a hard no from me.

This isn’t the first time the MLB has looked into streaming deals. They reached out to Barstool Sports back in August, Amazon, and many more major streaming services as well. The NFL is already locked in with Amazon for Thursday Night Football, so it makes sense that we’re seeing other leagues try to do the same.

While in the hunt for a new streaming deal, ESPN is trying to keep up with their other sports broadcasts as well. Just recently, ESPN announced their spin-off of “The Manning Cast”, featuring Alex Rodriguez and Michael Kay in a more laid-back setting on ESPN2 during Sunday Night Baseball.

The MLB’s deal with Apple is nowhere set in stone, as the MLB still needs to negotiate and agree to a contract with Apple. Streaming games won’t matter if there are no games, with the current MLB lockout still in place.

Players and owners are set to meet on Thursday, January 13th, to attempt to settle on a new collective bargaining agreement. 

Mandatory Credit: Associated Press