The Kansas City Royals aren’t exactly a keystone in the Major League Baseball offseason. But the scenario surrounding their regional sports network, FanDuel Sports Network Kansas City, may reveal a larger truth about the sport.
The Royals announced Tuesday that they have reached an agreement with Diamond Sports Group, the parent company of the FanDuel RSNs, to produce and telecast games in 2025.
As part of the agreement, streamers in the Royals’ home zone will be able to watch games via Amazon Prime Video as an add-on subscription. “Customers will be able to subscribe to and watch their local FanDuel Sports Network content, including live games and pre- and post-game programming directly through Prime Video,” per MLB.com.
With the news, all 30 teams have decided on a broadcast and/or streaming partner to air live games in 2025. This is significant beyond what it means to Royals fans. It’s a healthy indicator for the league’s financial health, as local broadcast revenues are directly related to how much teams are willing to spend on free agents.
We’ve already witnessed an increase in the pace of free agency compared to last year. Pitcher Blake Snell, for example, did not sign a 2024 contract with the San Francisco Giants until spring training began on March 19. After declining his 2025 contract option, he signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers within a month of the upcoming offseason.
Speaking at his inaugural press conference in Los Angeles on Tuesday, both Snell and his agent, Scott Boras, stated that Snell was just as motivated to sign swiftly this year as he was last year. MLB teams, on the other hand, were more willing to compromise this time. Boras even speculated that an improvement in local television rights could have had a role in this.
According to Jon Heyman of the New York Post, the Royals have expressed interest in free agent Juan Soto.
Kansas City is not one of the five contenders for Soto, who is allegedly asking $700 million. However, the fact that the Royals made the initiative to even kick the tires is noteworthy. A team with no assurance about its revenues is less likely to ask where the bidding begins, and there may have been many more of those a year ago.
For the time being, the RSN turbulence in Major League Baseball appears to have subsided.
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