Major League Baseball (MLB)

What it is

Major League Baseball (MLB) is the governing body and top professional baseball league in the United States and Canada, comprising 30 franchises organized into two historic circuits: the National League (NL), founded in 1876, and the American League (AL), founded in 1901. The two leagues formally unified operations under a single commissioner structure in 2000, building on the 1903 National Agreement that ended an inter-league player-raiding war. Teams play a 162-game regular season from late March through early October, followed by postseason rounds culminating in the World Series. MLB is headquartered at 1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, and has operated under Commissioner Robert D. Manfred Jr. since January 25, 2015; he is serving through the 2028 season, his third term.

History

The National League's 1876 founding established the first framework of centralized scheduling, player contracts, and club ownership. The American League declared itself a rival major league in 1901; the 1903 National Agreement ended the conflict and inaugurated the first modern World Series. MLB's reserve clause bound players to their clubs indefinitely for most of the 20th century. The 1968 collective bargaining agreement, the first in any US professional sport, began shifting that balance; arbitrator Peter Seitz's 1975 Messersmith ruling established free agency, reshaping salary structures across North American sports. From 1876 through 1946, Black players were barred from MLB and played in separate Negro Leagues. Jackie Robinson integrated the major leagues with the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947, a date now observed league-wide as Jackie Robinson Day. In 2024, MLB formally incorporated statistics and records from seven historical Negro Leagues into its official historical record, revising all-time leaderboards across batting average, hits, and stolen bases.

Current state

As of early 2026, MLB's annual revenues exceed US$11 billion, derived from national and local broadcast rights, gate receipts, licensing, and the MLB.TV streaming platform. The current Collective Bargaining Agreement, covering the 2022-2026 seasons, is under active renegotiation ahead of its expiration. The 2023 season introduced the pitch clock (15 seconds with empty bases, 20 seconds with runners on), defensive-shift restrictions, and larger bases; average game time fell to its lowest since 1985, stolen-base totals reached their highest since 1987, and league-wide attendance rose 9.6%. MLB has expanded its international footprint with regular-season games played in Tokyo, London, and Mexico City. The Toronto Blue Jays remain the league's sole non-US franchise. The luxury tax (Competitive Balance Tax) threshold rises each season under the current CBA; the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers have consistently exceeded it, incurring escalating surcharge rates.

Relationships

MLB's primary institutional counterpart is the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA), the union representing all current MLB and Minor League players, which negotiates the Collective Bargaining Agreement, sets minimum salaries (US$740,000 in 2026 for MLB players), and governs grievance procedures. MLB's revenue-sharing system redistributes a portion of local revenues to lower-revenue clubs; the luxury tax discourages but does not cap payrolls at the top end. Internationally, MLB maintains partnership structures with Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), South Korea's KBO League, and leagues across Latin America, drawing the majority of its foreign-born players from the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Cuba, and East Asia. The league holds a unique US antitrust exemption, granted by the US Supreme Court's 1922 Federal Baseball Club v. National League ruling and narrowed by statute in 1998 (the Curt Flood Act) but not fully repealed; no other major US professional sports league operates under an equivalent exemption.

What to watch

The 2022-2026 CBA expires after the 2026 season; disputes over minimum salaries, roster construction rules, the international amateur draft, and revenue sharing will shape the next labor cycle and could produce another work stoppage as in 1994 (season-ending strike) and 2021 (99-day lockout). MLB's national broadcast contracts with ESPN, Fox Sports, and Apple TV+ are at varying stages of their terms; Manfred's stated goal of consolidating all 30 clubs' local broadcast rights into a single national package by 2028 would restructure how audiences pay for game access as cable-TV subscribers decline. MLB is also evaluating expansion franchises or team relocations in Las Vegas, Nevada, and Nashville, Tennessee, where stadium negotiations are active as of mid-2026.