MLB takes over D-backs broadcasts after ruling
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Alden Gonzalez, ESPN Staff Writer
A bankruptcy judge approved Diamond Sports Group’s request to shed its contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks, prompting Major League Baseball to step in, beginning with the team’s game against the Atlanta Braves on Tuesday.
Like it did upon taking over the San Diego Padres‘ broadcasts at the end of May, MLB will make D-backs games available blackout-free through its streaming service, MLB.TV, and will provide a linear cable option on different channels through Cox, DirecTV, Spectrum and Comcast Xfinity. Other providers such as Mediacom, Orbitel, TDS and Optimum/Suddenlink will also carry D-backs games, as will the streaming service Fubo.
A spokesperson for Diamond Sports said its contract with the D-backs — a reported 20-year, $1.5 billion deal that began in 2015 — “had financial terms that were not aligned with its long-term plans.”
By lifting blackouts, MLB stated that the D-backs’ reach can increase from 930,000 to 5.6 million homes in the team’s home television territory. Local fans can pay $19.99 a month or $54.99 for the rest of the season to stream D-backs games; the next six games, through Sunday, will be provided for free through the team’s official website and the MLB app.
MLB will use the same broadcasters, Steve Berthiaume and Bob Brenly, and are expected to deploy most of the same behind-the-scenes workers to maintain the team’s broadcasts for the rest of this season.
“This decision provides us with an opportunity to partner with Major League Baseball to produce high-quality broadcasts of D-backs games on current platforms, expand access to include streaming options, and remove blackouts that have been a fan frustration point for years,” D-backs CEO Derrick Hall wrote in a statement. “We have enjoyed our partnership with Bally Sports Arizona and thank them for the longtime partnership. But we look forward to providing unprecedented access to our exciting team moving forward, including a greatly expanded reach of new households.”
Diamond Sports Group, the Sinclair subsidiary that operates under the name Bally Sports, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on March 14 and has since shed two of its 14 major league teams. The company wrote in a statement that it anticipates “making all rights payments for the remainder of the MLB teams in our portfolio through the end of this season.”
Diamond Sports initially took on more than $8 billion in debt when it purchased the regional sports networks for 42 teams across MLB, the NBA and the NHL in 2019 and struggled to maintain a sustainable business as the rate of cord-cutting increased throughout the country.
Diamond Sports has continuously stated that it needs additional streaming rights — it has the streaming rights to only five of its MLB properties — in order to prop up its Bally Sports+ app and generate more revenue. MLB, however, has been adamant against providing more rights to a company that thrust itself into this position in the first place. The league has stated its hopes that teams are paid what they’re owed in rights fees but also envisions a future — perhaps as soon as the next two to three years — when most, if not all, broadcasting rights are operated under a national umbrella.
The D-backs and Diamond Sports were initially scheduled for a hearing on June 29, but it was pushed back 2½ weeks “due to ongoing and positive discussions toward finding a solution,” Hall and Diamond Sports CEO David Preschlack wrote in a statement.
In Tuesday’s court hearing, however, Diamond Sports attorney Andrew Goldman said the two sides were not able to reach agreement on a deal that would garner support from the commissioner’s office.
MLB has promised Bally Sports teams that it would backstop broadcast payments up to 80% in 2023, but sources said that won’t be the case in 2024, setting up the possibility of several owners losing significant broadcast revenue at that point. Long term, though, MLB believes controlling teams’ broadcasting rights will be the best way to maximize revenue in an increasingly digital era.
That plan will continue with the D-backs.
“As Major League Baseball has proven with the Padres, we’re ready to produce and distribute games to fans, including Diamondbacks games starting today,” MLB chief revenue officer Noah Garden wrote in a statement. “While we’re disappointed that Diamond Sports Group failed to live up to their contractual agreement with another club, we are taking this opportunity to reimagine the distribution model, remove blackouts on local games, improve the telecast and expand the reach of Diamondbacks games by 4.7 million homes.”
CHICAGO — The Chicago Cubs had a major-league-high three Gold Glove winners this year, with Pete Crow-Armstrong, Ian Happ and Nico Hoerner taking home baseball’s most famous fielding honor.
It was the first Gold Glove for Crow-Armstrong, part of a breakout season for the All-Star center fielder. Happ won for the fourth consecutive year in left field, and it was the second Gold Glove for Hoerner at second base.
“Four straight’s pretty special,” Happ said. “We had an unbelievable defensive team this year. Just all around, I think we built off each other and kind of fed off each other and the energy, and it was a real source of pride amongst the group.”
Hoerner also won in 2023. He was slowed at the beginning of this season as he made his way back from right flexor tendon surgery on Oct. 11, 2024.
“To have an injury that directly impacts your defense and still win this award, yeah, it feels really good,” Hoerner said.
Kansas City, Boston and San Francisco each had two winners. Eight players earned the award for the first time, St. Louis-based Rawlings announced Sunday.
Bobby Witt Jr. and Maikel Garcia of the Royals became the first shortstop-third baseman teammates to win in the same season since J.J. Hardy and Manny Machado for the Orioles in 2013. It was Witt’s second straight Gold Glove at shortstop.
Patrick Bailey and Logan Webb of the Giants are the first battery from the same team to win a Gold Glove in the same season since Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright for the Cardinals in 2013. It was Bailey’s second straight win at catcher.
The Red Sox winners were right fielder Wilyer Abreu and center fielder Ceddanne Rafaela. Abreu, 26, also won last year, and Rafaela, 25, earned the award for the first time.
New York Yankees pitcher Max Fried and Cleveland left fielder Steven Kwan joined Happ as four-time winners. Atlanta first baseman Matt Olson earned his third Gold Glove.
Detroit catcher Dillon Dingler, Texas second baseman Marcus Semien, Houston utilityman Mauricio Dubón and first baseman Ty France rounded out the AL winners. France was traded from Minnesota to Toronto on July 31.
San Diego right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr., St. Louis shortstop Masyn Winn, third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes and Miami utilityman Javier Sanoja also won in the NL. It’s the second Gold Glove for Tatis and Hayes, who was traded from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati on July 30.
Semien earned a $100,000 bonus for winning the honor. Kwan and Witt each got $50,000, and Hayes earned a $25,000 bonus.
Voting was conducted among managers and up to six coaches from each team, who can’t select players on their own club. Since 2013, voting has been factored with a Society for American Baseball Research defensive index, which comprises about 25% of the total.
The utility category is based on a SABR formula and additional defensive statistics.
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