See at MLB.TV

Out-of-market games (blackout restrictions apply)

MLB.TV: $30 per month

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See at DirecTV

ESPN, Fox, NBC, TBS, MLB Network and most RSNs

DirecTV: $90 per month

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See at Fubo

ESPN, NBC, Fox and some RSNs

Fubo: $74 per month

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Robot umpires have yet to arrive, but the 2026 Major League Baseball season will usher in the Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) Challenge System that will allow players to challenge calls made by the human umpire behind the plate. 

Finding a simple, straightforward way to watch your favorite team's games is also a challenge this season. And there's no automated system to which you can appeal that can you make the right call about the various streaming services you'll need to watch baseball. As a fan, I've done the work to uncover the best ways to watch your team's games this season, no matter where your fandom lies.

For the first time, every MLB team offers a direct-to-consumer, in-market streaming service without any blackout restrictions. With the collapse of the Regional Sports Network (RSN) model, Major League Baseball has taken over the streaming rights of 22 of the 30 MLB clubs. And the remaining eight offer their own in-market streaming plans. Pricing varies by team but you are looking at $20-$30 per month or $100-$200 for the season.

If you were hoping to watch your team's games on the same TV channel as in past years as part of your cable or satellite TV package or a live TV streaming service, your mileage may vary. In some cases, the in-market streaming plan replaces the local RSN that previously broadcasted your team's games. Many teams have yet to announce which TV channel will show their games and on which providers, even at this late date on the eve of the start of the season.

For fans who don't live in the local market of their favorite team, the best option is the same as it has been for years: MLB.TV for $30 per month or $150 for the season. And for serious fans, most teams let you combine the single team in-market plan with the out-of-market MLB.TV plan at a discount.

Other changes for the 2026 MLB season: Sunday Night Baseball has moved from ESPN to NBC and Peacock. And Netflix is getting in on the national pastime and will show a couple games, starting with the opening night game between the New York Yankees and the San Francisco Giants.

Since baseball is more of a regional sport where fans watch their favorite team's games day in and day out more than they gather around the TV on certain nights for national broadcasts, I've organized this MLB viewing guide by division so you can find your favorite team and see the best ways to watch or stream its games.

How to watch MLB 2026: Team-by-team guide

We'll start in the National League before getting to the Junior Circuit. Here are the in-market streaming plans for each team, grouped by division. I've also included information about where you can watch your team's games on a local TV channel, where available. Many teams are still working out the details in this post-RSN era and have yet to announce their local TV broadcast plans for the season.

All five teams in the NL East offer in-market streaming from MLB itself. Plans for the Braves, Marlins and Nationals are priced at the standard $20 per month or $100 for the six-month regular season, with the Mets' and Phillies' plans costing slightly more.

For local TV, the Braves and Marlins are still working out the details for the upcoming season. Both were previously part of the FanDuel Sports Network, which has shut down. The Braves are launching their own RSN in their home television territory called BravesVision, but have yet to say where the channel will appear and on which providers. The Marlins haven't announced how their games will be broadcast in South Florida this season, merely stating, "Information on cable and satellite providers, including specific channel locations, will be announced at a later date."

Mets games will again be on the SNY cable and satellite TV channel, which you can also get with DirecTV's live TV streaming service for $85 a month. 

Phillies games will again be on NBC Sports Philadelphia, which you can get with Fubo for $85 a month.

Nationals games will again be on MASN, which you can get with DirecTV or Fubo.

Four of the five teams in the NL Central offer in-market streaming from MLB, with the Pirates offering their own in-market streaming service for roughly the same price.

For local TV, Cubs games will again appear on the Marquee Sports Network and Pirates games will be on SportsNet Pittsburgh, each of which are available on DirecTV and Fubo for $85 a month. The Reds, Brewers and Cardinals are former FanDuel teams and have yet to announce their TV broadcast plans for 2026, but I did discover that Reds games will be shown on channel 24 for Altafiber cable TV subscribers.

All five teams in the NL West offer in-market streaming from MLB.

For local TV, the Dodgers and Giants are the only two teams in the division whose games will be broadcast on a local RSN. You can watch most Dodgers games this season on Spectrum SportsNet LA, which you can get with DirecTV. Most Giants games this season will be on NBC Sports Bay Area, which is available on DirecTV, Fubo and YouTube TV.

Diamondbacks, Rockies and Padres fans will need to subscribe to the team's in-market streaming service because these teams don't have a local RSN channel. Aside from national broadcasts, only a handful of these team's games will appear on local TV. Each team has announced it will air 10 or 11 games for free on a local over-the-air network channel.

The Orioles and Rays have an in-market streaming service direct from MLB, and the Red Sox, Yankees and Blue Jays offer their own service. One note on the high yearly price of NESN 360: In addition to Red Sox games, it also includes Boston Bruins for hockey fans.

For local TV, only the Rays have yet to announce their local TV plans for the 2026 season. Orioles games (MASN), Red Sox games (NESN) and Yankees games (YES) will appear on the same RSN as in past years, and each is available with DirecTV and Fubo. Meanwhile, Blue Jays games will once again appear on SportsNet in Canada.

Four of the five teams in the AL Central offer in-market streaming via MLB, with the White Sox appearing on the CHSN, whose yearly plan also includes Chicago Bulls and Blackhawks games. The Tigers' yearly plan also includes Detroit Red Wings games.

For local TV, the White Sox and Tigers will still show the majority of the team's games on an RSN. White Sox games will appear on Chicago Sports Network, which you can get with DirecTV or Fubo. Tigers games will be on the new Detroit SportsNet channel, but details about which cable and satellite providers will carry the channel have yet to be announced. 

Guardians, Royals and Twins have left the RSN model. If you don't subscribe to the team's in-market streaming package, then you'll be able to watch your team on TV only when it appears on a national broadcast or one of its few appearances on an over-the-air network. The Guardians have announced it will air 11 games on an OTA channel, with 10 such games scheduled for the Royals and Twins.

The Angels, Athletics and Mariners each offer an in-market streaming service from MLB, and the Astros and Rangers are each launching a new club-owned streaming service for local fans, SCHN Plus for Astros games and Victory Plus for Rangers games.

For local TV, only the Mariners have yet to announce how its games will be broadcast on local TV. The other four teams have RSNs for their games. Astros games will appear on Space City Home Network available on DirecTV and Fubo. Angels games will appear on FanDuel Sports Network West available on DirecTV and Fubo. Athletics games will appear on NBC Sports California on DirecTV, Fubo and YouTube TV. And Rangers games will appear on Rangers Sports Network, which is available on DirecTV.

MLB.TV for out-of-market fans

To be clear, the above information is for fans who live in the local TV market of their favorite team. If you don't live near the team you follow, then MLB.TV is the only option to watch the majority of your team's games. MLB.TV remains an excellent streaming service through the MLB app, but there's a change in how to sign up for it this season. 

It's now available as an add-on to ESPN under the new three-year deal between MLB and ESPN. And when you sign up for an MLB.TV subscription, it comes with a free month of ESPN Unlimited, which on its face is a nice little bonus. But the ESPN Unlimited trial auto renews at $30 a month, so you'll need to set yourself a reminder to cancel it if you don't want it.

Once again this season, T-Mobile subscribers can get MLB.TV for free for the season, but you'll need to claim this perk before the end of March.

MLB.TV costs $150 for the season. If you're unsure if your team will be in the pennant race come August, you can take it month by month and pay $30 per month. As a subscriber, you can watch out-of-market games live or on demand, and the in-market (home) team with a 90-minute delay from the end of the game.

With MLB.TV, you can also listen to home and away radio broadcasts. The radio broadcasts aren't subject to the blackout rule, so you can listen to home team games live. MLB.TV also features MLB Network and a ton of video content including classic games, baseball documentaries and old This Week in Baseball episodes.

Read our MLB.TV review.

National baseball broadcasts for 2026

Like the NFL and NBA, Major League Baseball has sliced up its schedule and sold off parts of it to the various streamers. While this practice is lucrative for the leagues themselves, it makes it hard on fans who are left to figure out which games are on which streaming service on any given day. And while MLB in-market streaming plans for any team let you get around local blackout restrictions, those plans still don't show every game. 

When your team is part of a national broadcast, that game is usually blacked out on your team's in-market streaming subscription. The same goes for out-of-market fans who subscribe to MLB.TV. Local blackouts can be particularly irksome for fans of the Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers and other big-market teams that are frequently selected for national broadcasts.

For the 2026 season, national baseball broadcasts will appear on six different TV channels and four different streaming services. Here's the breakdown for each:

• ESPN: 30 national broadcasts mostly June-August
• Fox: Saturday afternoon games
• FS1: Saturday and midweek games
• NBC/Peacock: Sunday Night Baseball and Sunday afternoon games
• TBS/HBO Max: Tuesday night games 
• MLB Network: couple of games each week
• Apple TV: Friday night doubleheader each week of the season
• Netflix: Opening Night game, Home Run Derby, Field of Dreams game

Fubo's $74-a-month Core plan includes some RSNs for your local team's games along with ESPN, NBC, Fox and FS1 for national broadcasts. However, it lacks TBS for Tuesday night games. And you'll need the $10-a-month sports add-on to get MLB Network. You can use its channel lookup tool to see which local channels and RSNs are available where you live.

Read our Fubo review.

YouTube TV costs $83 a month and includes ESPN, Fox, FS1, NBC, TBS but not MLB Network for national baseball broadcasts. It offers only two NBC Sports RSNs for the two Northern California teams, the San Francisco Giants and the Athletics, who are playing in Sacramento this year as the team awaits its move to Las Vegas. 

Read our YouTube TV review.

Each live TV streaming service allows you to cancel anytime and requires a solid internet connection. Looking for more information? Check out our live TV streaming services guide.

Three streaming services, Apple TV, Peacock and Netflix, have exclusive rights to games. Netflix will show only two games this season plus the Home Run Derby, so that's less of an issue than the Friday night doubleheaders each week of the season on Apple TV that you won't be able to watch anywhere else. And while you can watch most Sunday Night Baseball games on NBC, some will stream only on Peacock. And the Sunday afternoon games will also stream only on Peacock. With HBO Max, you can watch the TBS broadcasts on Tuesday nights, but none are exclusive to HBO Max.

Apple TV costs $13 a month and, like last year, will stream a baseball doubleheader every Friday night this season. Apple's MLB games will be free from blackout restrictions, so you'll be able to watch them no matter where you live and which teams are playing. The games are exclusive to Apple TV, however, which means you won't find them on your RSN or in-market streaming plan if your local team is playing.

A full schedule of Apple's MLB broadcasts through the end of June can be found here. 

Read our Apple TV Plus review.

Peacock's $11-per-month Premium plan includes access to Sunday Night Baseball. While some weeks the Sunday night game will also air on NBC, other weeks the game will stream exclusively on Peacock. And you'll also need Peacock for all of the Sunday afternoon games.

Read our Peacock review.

HBO Max will show the TBS broadcasts on Tuesday nights this season. The Basic with ads plan for Max costs $11 a month but you'll need the ad-free Standard plan that costs $18.49 a month to watch live sports, including MLB games.

Read our Max review.

Watch this: Netflix Streams MLB Opening Day, Where To Watch Regular Season Games, New Umpiring Rules | Tech Today

03:06

Yankees games on Prime Video

For Yankees fans in the team's market, Amazon (which owns a piece of the YES Network) will once again stream 21 Yankees games on Prime Video this season, mostly on Wednesday nights. You'll need to be a Prime member, too (currently $139 per year). 

These games are exclusive to Prime Video and won't be viewable without a Prime Video account even if you pay for cable TV or the YES app. A full list of games can be found here, with the first exclusive contest set for April 3 when the Yankees host the A's.