{"id":654803,"date":"2026-05-07T04:56:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T04:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/654803\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T04:56:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T04:56:12","slug":"mlb-television-ratings-surge-44-through-early-part-of-the-season-ahead-of-potential-lockout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/654803\/","title":{"rendered":"MLB television ratings surge 44% through early part of the season ahead of potential lockout"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Major League Baseball<\/a> is booming. And they better not mess it up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Several years ago, MLB and Commissioner Rob Manfred enacted changes<\/a> meant to speed up the game through better pace of play, keeping the same amount of action in baseball while decreasing the time each game took to finish.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The pitch clock immediately shortened game times, and more importantly, made them feel faster. Physically larger bases were introduced to encourage more stolen base attempts, which worked immediately. In 2022, the last season before the larger bases, there were 3,297 stolen base attempts leaguewide. In 2023, there were a whopping 4,369. Nearly 1,100 more attempts in just one year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

ZERO BS. JUST DAKICH. TAKE THE DON’T @ ME PODCAST ON THE ROAD. DOWNLOAD NOW!<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Commissioner <\/p>\n

Commissioner of Major League Baseball Robert D. Manfred Jr. speaks during the 2024 Grapefruit League Spring Training Media Day at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Fla., on Feb. 15, 2024. (Mike Carlson\/MLB Photos)<\/p>\n

Banning extreme infield shifts meant fewer traditional hits, especially for left-handed hitters, were taken away by infielders playing out of position. And for 2026, the automated balls and strikes system<\/a> was added to eliminate egregiously missed calls. That\u2019s been a rousing success as well.<\/p>\n

SMALL MARKET MLB TEAMS ARE OUTPERFORMING BIG PAYROLLS, UNDERMINING OWNERS’ PUSH TO CANCEL 2027 SEASON<\/a><\/p>\n

And despite the offseason hand-wringing, baseball\u2019s in a better spot than it\u2019s been in decades.\u00a0Attendance is up. World Series ratings in 2025 were massive. The World Baseball Classic<\/a> has become must-see TV. Momentum is stronger than it’s been in decades. On Wednesday, that was confirmed by the latest viewership data coming from national broadcasts.<\/p>\n

MLB Communications posted on X that, through the early part of the season, television ratings for “national exclusive” games have exploded.\u00a0“Viewership for national exclusive MLB games through the first weekend of May is 2.28 million, a +44% increase over last year and the best start in 9 years,” the post says.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s an incredible increase and comes just a few months after many fans and media members heavily criticized the Los Angeles Dodgers for<\/a> “ruining” baseball by signing free agents. It\u2019s one thing for outsiders to have those concerns, but reports were rampant that opposing teams and their owners would use the Dodgers\u2019 spending to push for a salary cap.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Shohei <\/p>\n

Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers celebrates after hitting a home run during the seventh inning against the Toronto Blue Jays in game three of the 2025 World Series at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Calif., on Oct. 27, 2025. (Sean M. Haffey\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Labor negotiations between the league and the MLB Players Association are expected to start soon, and a lockout in December when the Collective Bargaining Agreement expires seems like a near-certainty. And if there\u2019s one line in the sand for the players, it\u2019s a salary cap. The cap would, in their view, limit their potential earnings while doing little for competitive balance. A position supported by the current standings, where teams like the Boston Red Sox, Philadelphia Phillies and New York Mets have struggled through the first quarter of the season.<\/p>\n

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If the cap does become the owners\u2019 top priority, and players won\u2019t agree to it, the sport could be thrown into an extended lockout. An extended lockout leading to canceled games would be a disaster for baseball, and risk jeopardizing the league\u2019s impressive growth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

A general view of Petco Park during the game between the Detroit Tigers and the San Diego Padres on March 26, 2026, in San Diego, California. (Rob Leiter\/MLB Photos via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Baseball is finally heading in the right direction, and hopefully these numbers are enough to make those in charge realize it. And be terrified of squandering it and hurting themselves much more than limiting player salaries would help them.<\/p>\n

Ian Miller is a writer at OutKick.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Major League Baseball is booming. And they better not mess it up.\u00a0 Several years ago, MLB and Commissioner…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":654804,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,5156,1187,591,300794,2365,85,143382],"class_list":["post-654803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boston-red-sox","tag-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-mlb","tag-outkick-sports","tag-philadelphia-phillies","tag-sports","tag-world-baseball-classic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=654803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/654804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}