MLB produces local games for Guardians, Brewers and Twins

Major League Baseball said Tuesday it will produce and distribute local games for the Cleveland Guardians, Milwaukee Brewers and Minnesota Twins next season, signaling all three teams will break away from bankrupt Diamond Sports Group.

The Texas Rangers will also part ways with Diamond, which is 19 months into Chapter 11 restructuring but is considering other local media options for the 2025 season, MLB announced.

The Guardians, Brewers and Twins will join the Colorado Rockies, Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres as teams under the MLB umbrella. The Diamondbacks and Padres were dropped by Diamond last year; The Rockies were previously affiliated with Warner Bros. Discovery, which closed or sold its regional sports networks in late 2023.

MLB, which opened a local media division after Diamond’s bankruptcy, will negotiate cable and satellite distribution deals and make local streaming available through MLB.tv. By joining the MLB and the associated non-binding to the territorial rights associated with the distribution partners, blackouts are avoided. MLB predicts that games for the Guardians and Twins – teams that, unlike the Brewers, did not have a local direct-to-consumer streaming option – will see a 235% and 307% increase in reach, respectively.

The Guardians, Twins, Brewers and Rangers all had expiring contracts with Diamond. Eight other teams — the Atlanta Braves, Tampa Bay Rays, Detroit Tigers, Los Angeles Angels, Cincinnati Reds, Miami Marlins, St. Louis Cardinals and Kansas City Royals — are still in limbo.

Diamond recently unveiled a restructuring plan that includes giving up broadcast rights to every team in its portfolio except the Braves, although the company is seeking to renegotiate terms with the other teams. A confirmation date, when a bankruptcy judge will decide whether Diamond will continue operating as a reorganized company, has been set for Nov. 14-15 in Houston.