MLB and ESPN blew up baseball streaming. Here’s help

In 2026, figuring out how to watch baseball is more confusing than ever.

MLB teams are switching channels on cable and satellite TV as regional sports networks collapse, while new companies are carving up the rights for games on national television. New streaming services are also coming online for watching in-market games without blackouts, even as ESPN has introduced more complications for watching out-of-market games on MLB.TV.

I can’t make the situation any simpler, but as someone who covers the streaming space pretty closely, I can at least lay out the options in a way that makes sense. Here’s how to navigate the baseball streaming options as opening day approaches:

How you’ll watch MLB games in 2026 depends largely on where your favorite team plays. To figure out which teams are in-market, I suggest entering your zip code on MLB’s Blackout Restrictions page.

If the team you want to watch is in-market, you have two options for watching without a cable or satellite TV package:

The latter option is especially confusing because every team is handling standalone subscriptions differently. Some are partnering with the league on “Club.TV” packages, others are tied to existing regional sports networks, while others still have spun up their own networks to produce and distribute games.

To make things simpler, here’s a chart listing all 30 MLB teams, their corresponding pay TV channels, the live TV streaming services that carry those channels, and the options for standalone streaming.

If you’re having trouble reading the chart on this page, you can also load the Google Sheets version:

You can sign up for DirecTV or Fubo via these links. Unfortunately, these services still won’t carry nationally-televised games on channels like ESPN and streaming services like Apple TV. More on those options in Step 4 below.

What if you want to watch a team that doesn’t play where you live? That’s where MLB.TV comes in. This long-running service provides access to all out-of-market games except those that are nationally televised. (See Step 4 below.)

Some options to be aware of:

Unfortunately, ESPN has made this once-simple service needlessly more complicated in 2026.

Now that ESPN owns MLB.TV, it’s requiring every new subscriber for its all-teams package to take a free trial of ESPN Unlimited, which is an entirely separate $30 per month service that carries ESPN’s cable channels. You don’t need ESPN Unlimited to maintain an MLB.TV subscription, but you’ll have to start a trial for it when you sign up. This slimy behavior on ESPN’s part will almost certainly result in some folks paying $30 per month extra for MLB.TV by accident.

So here’s my advice: After signing up for MLB.TV, immediately cancel the ESPN Unlimited subscription. You’ll still get the free trial, but you won’t get auto-billed at the end.

Note that the mandatory ESPN trial does not apply to the single-team plans, the T-Mobile offer, or the in-market “Club.TV” packages covered in Step 2 above. If you’re renewing MLB.TV from a previous season, you’re exempt from ESPN’s sneaky trial tactics as well.

Regardless of whether you have an in-market streaming plan or MLB.TV for out-of-market games, you’ll still have to contend with nationally-televised games. Here’s what you need to know:

Watching all of these games without a pay TV package would require some combination of ESPN Unlimited ($30 per month), Fox One ($20 per month), Peacock Premium ($11 per month), HBO Max’s ad-free plan ($17 per month), and Apple TV ($13 per month). That approach is probably unwise for all but the biggest baseball fans.

Some alternative strategies to consider instead:

Are there blackouts on the Club.TV packages, such as Reds.TV and Mariners.TV?

No, these are in-market options that provide the same telecast you’d get from a cable or satellite TV provider. Nationally televised games (for instance, on ESPN or Apple TV) will not be available, but these are not blackouts as there won’t be a local telecast in most cases.

Do the Club.TV packages cover both home and away games?

Yes. Again, these are the same telecasts you’d get from a cable or satellite TV provider.

Does MLB.TV cover both home and away games?

If your team plays outside the area where you live, you’ll get both their home and away games, with one major exception: Games against your local, in-market team have blackout restrictions. For instance, if you live in Cincinnati and sign up for MLB.TV to watch the Yankees, games between the Yankees and Reds will be blacked out, both at home and on the road. There’s no way around that but to pay for a month of Reds.TV.

What if I want to watch two in-market teams, like the Angels and Dodgers in Los Angeles, or the Yankees and Mets in New York?

Sadly you’ll have to sign up for both teams’ in-market options, or pick a live TV streaming service that carries both of their respective networks. This is your punishment for not picking a side.

Couldn’t I just use a VPN to watch in-market games through MLB.TV?

You can try, but expect hassles. In my experience, this required a lot of jumping through hoops on TV devices, and the VPN itself will cost extra. There’s also no guarantee that MLB.TV won’t block you, in which case you’ll have wasted the costs of both an MLB.TV subscription and the VPN.

I hope all this was helpful. Got more questions? Sign up for my Cord Cutter Weekly newsletter and send me a reply, and I’ll do my best to help.