ESPN's coverage of Major League Baseball games will conclude at the end of the 2025 season, it was announced on Thursday.
There was a March 1 deadline for MLB and ESPN to opt out of the final three years of their contract. The sides agreed to a seven-year deal in 2021 that averaged $550 million per season.
"We are grateful for our longstanding relationship with Major League Baseball and proud of how ESPN's coverage super-serves fans," the network said in a statement. "In making this decision, we applied the same discipline and fiscal responsibility that has built ESPN's industry-leading live events portfolio as we continue to grow our audience across linear, digital and social platforms.
"As we have been throughout the process, we remain open to exploring new ways to serve MLB fans across our platforms beyond 2025."
ESPN has carried MLB games since 1990 but cut back its coverage in the current contract to 30 regular-season games -- mostly on Sunday night -- and the wild-card postseason series. ESPN also had the Home Run Derby and 10 spring training games.
The previous eight-year deal, which ran from 2014 through 2021, saw ESPN broadcast up to 90 regular-season games. ESPN also stopped airing the daily "Baseball Tonight" highlights and news show in 2017.
ESPN is still open to pursuing a deal with a reduced rights fee after seeing deals struck with Apple and Roku. Apple pays $85 million per season for a Friday night package it has aired since 2022, while Roku's deal for Sunday afternoon games is worth $10 million per year.
"Unfortunately in recent years, we have seen ESPN scale back their baseball coverage and investment in a way that is not consistent with the sport's appeal or performance on their platform," MLB said in a statement. "Given that MLB provides strong viewership, valuable demographics, and the exclusive right to cover unique events like the Home Run Derby, ESPN's demand to reduce rights fees is simply unacceptable. As a result, we have mutually agreed to terminate our agreement."
MLB said in its statement that there is "significant interest from both traditional media companies and streaming services who would like to obtain rights to MLB games."
"We will be exploring those opportunities for a new agreement which would start in the 2026 season following the conclusion of ESPN's agreement at the end of this year," the league said.
MLB receives an average of $729 million from Fox and $470 million from Turner Sports per year under deals that expire after the 2028 season.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.