Major League Baseball is booming. And they better not mess it up.
Several years ago, MLB and Commissioner Rob Manfred enacted changes 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.
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.
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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 was added to eliminate egregiously missed calls. That’s been a rousing success as well.
And despite the offseason hand-wringing, baseball’s in a better spot than it’s been in decades. Attendance is up. World Series ratings in 2025 were massive. The World Baseball Classic 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.
MLB Communications posted on X that, through the early part of the season, television ratings for “national exclusive” games have exploded. “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.
That’s an incredible increase and comes just a few months after many fans and media members heavily criticized the Los Angeles Dodgers for “ruining” baseball by signing free agents. It’s one thing for outsiders to have those concerns, but reports were rampant that opposing teams and their owners would use the Dodgers’ spending to push for a salary cap.
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’s one line in the sand for the players, it’s 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.
If the cap does become the owners’ top priority, and players won’t 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’s impressive growth.
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.
