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(Photo by Matthew Grimes Jr./Atlanta Braves/Getty Images)

MLB announced new TV rights deals with ESPN, NBC and Netflix on Wednesday, leading to some notable changes for the MLB Draft and the Futures Game.

The first day of the 2026 draft will take place on the Saturday of MLB’s All-Star Weekend, while the Futures Game will move to Sunday. NBC now has rights to present the draft and Futures Game. 

While MLB still is working to iron out complete details for the draft schedule, the league did announce that NBC and Peacock will now present the first hour of the draft. The remainder of day one would be presented by Peacock, NBCSN and MLB Network.

This will mean that the MLB Draft, which less than 30 years ago was held in secret, will now be broadcast on free, over-the-air broadcast television, although only for a brief snippet (one hour) of the full draft.

The news comes just a year after MLB shortened the draft from three days to two. The 2025 draft was the first to have rounds 1-3 take place on the first day, and then each of the next 17 rounds take place on the second day of the event—Sunday and Monday, respectively. 

The move will also shift the Futures Game back to Sunday with a celebrities and retired players event following the game. That spot has traditionally been when the celebrity softball game was held, but the official release described this as a new event, indicating the celebrity softball game is being reworked into something new.

The Futures Game had traditionally been played on Sunday, a spot it held as recently as 2021, when the MLB Draft began soon after the exhibition wrapped up. It was moved to a Saturday spot on the schedule in 2022 in order to provide more time and attention to the MLB Draft.

The exact timing of day two of the draft has yet to be finalized, and as of yet, it is not clear when the remainder of the MLB Draft will start. It’s not even a certainty that it will remain a two-day event, although MLB clubs have seemed to generally be happy with the switch to two days.