Only two international games are scheduled in 2025.

What is going on with Major League Baseball’s business department? MLB has not solved its Athletics and Tampa Bay Rays’ stadium situations, there is a problem with cable TV deals for a number of franchises and now it appears that MLB has a problem staging games in other countries. MLB will have two games in Tokyo, Japan in 2025. MLB could not find a business partner to play games in Paris, France. MLB has decided not to go back to Mexico City, Mexico and San Juan, Puerto Rico. Money was an issue in San Juan. MLB has had a long history of games in Mexico in Mexico City and Monterrey. In the 1990s when MLB was looking for cities for its 1998 expansion, Monterrey was in the mix and there were some people in Monterrey who thought about going after the MLB-owned Montréal Expos franchise. That Expos franchise also played games in San Juan in 2003 and 2004.

MLB put that franchise in Washington, D. C. following the 2004 season. While National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell keeps pushing the notion of NFL games in Brazil, Spain, Germany and England, while the NBA is putting games in Mexico City and Paris and the NHL is putting games in traditional hockey markets in Europe, MLB is taking a step back. But MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred does not seem too concerned. “We had a really, really aggressive international play undertaking last season. But we’ve been to Mexico the last few years in a row, and we’re taking one year off. We’ll be back, though.” There might be a Mexico problem in 2026. Soccer’s 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup Tournament will be played in the United States, Canada and Mexico and since soccer is far bigger than baseball all the Mexican corporate money might be thrown at soccer, not baseball.

Evan Weiner’s books are available at iTunes – https://books.apple.com/us/author/evan-weiner/id595575191

Evan can be reached at evan_weiner@hotmail.com

Commissioner Rob Manfred