The news of MLB's new TV deal with Turner "didn't sit well with a few players" considering some of the recent rhetoric coming from the owners in the current labor dispute, according to Ali Thanawalla of NBC SPORTS BAY AREA. Giants SS Brandon Crawford tweeted, “ThE iNdUsTrY jUsT iSnT tHaT pRoFiTaBlE.” Phillies LF Andrew McCutchen added, "bUT bAsEbAlL iS dYiNg!" Both responses come just a few days after Cardinals Chair & CEO Bill DeWitt Jr. said on local radio that owning an MLB team "isn't very profitable" (NBCSPORTSBAYAREA.com, 6/13). Reds P Trevor Bauer tweeted, "Oh good so ... we can play now, right? Seems there is plenty to [go] around here. Seems there is plenty of money being made by the league and the teams. Given than players are the product, I’m sure some of this can be distributed to them, right? Yay for baseball!" Red Sox CF Kevin Pillar: "Tell us when and where! Been ready!" Giants C Tyler Heineman: "We are ready. Tell us when and where." Nationals P Max Scherzer late last week tweeted, "Some owners have mentioned that owning a team isn’t very NET profitable.. You know what other company isn’t very NET profitable? Amazon" (TWITTER.com, 6/13).
DETAILS ON TURNER'S NEW DEAL: MLB has agreed to broad terms on a new rights deal with Turner Sports at around a 40% average annual increase, sources said. Nothing has been signed formally, but this new deal will see Turner pay an average of around $470M per year from '22-28 for a rough total of $3.29B. Its expiration will sync with a Fox deal signed in November '18. Turner now pays an average of $325M a year under an eight-year deal that expires after the '21 season. Turner’s 40% increase is in line with MLB expectations, especially considering that Fox agreed to a similar increase just 20 months earlier. Like Turner’s current deal, the new one will be heavily weighted toward the postseason. Turner will keep rights to one League Championship Series, two Division Series and one wild-card game, sources said. The expectation is that this deal does not include rights to any additional playoff games, which would have to be negotiated separately. The most significant change will come with Turner’s regular- season package. TBS will move its weekly Sunday afternoon game to a weeknight, most likely on Tuesday, sources said. Both Turner and MLB have been disappointed with the viewership for TBS’s Sunday afternoon game, which is not exclusive and competes with the teams’ RSNs that also carry the games (Ourand & Prisbell, THE DAILY). The deal is the "first major rights agreement under president Jeff Zucker and shows Turner’s continued commitment to premium live sports" (N.Y. POST, 6/13).
