Where to watch St. Louis Cardinals baseball in 2026

As a fan of the St. Louis Cardinals and Major League Baseball, it is becoming increasingly frustrating to watch baseball games. Major League Baseball just repackaged their national product after cutting ties with ESPN for the Sunday Night Baseball package, Home Run Derby, and Wild Card round games. As commissioner Rob Manfred is waiting for the TV contracts to expire in 2028, the goal is to fix all blackout issues across every market and create an easier way for fans to obtain watching their favorite teams and national spotlight games. The solution for now is that NBC/Peacock will air the prior ESPN package to go along with Sunday morning games. Netflix will now be airing the Home Run Derby, which only further separates the solution of easy access to games.

How does the RSN fallout impact the Cardinals, and how can I watch games in 2026?

What impacts the Cardinals is yet again another fallout with regional sports networks. The RSN model has been steadily declining for two decades and somehow continues to be brought back to life. Cardinals fans had it well with Fox Sports Midwest for years before Fox sold off the RSN contracts to Diamond Sports Group which branded the broadcasts under Bally Sports. When Diamond Sports Groups faced bankruptcy litigation following the 2024 season, FanDuel stepped in and bought the TV contracts to continue the RSN model. This did not change the way fans could access games, but yet another rebrand has fans questioning the stability of this model.

In recent news, FanDuel has failed to make its first payment to the Cardinals, and this led the Dewitt family to back out of the contract. The Cardinals are now heading into the 2026 season as a free agent in the TV market space. Manfred has offered the solution to broadcast Cardinals games under the same MLB Network agreement with 9 other teams after the Bally Sports fallout. The Cardinals own their streaming product, so this only seems to impact customers viewing from cable subscriptions. The Cardinals recently have offered a streaming-only product through Bally Sports and FanDuel for $20 per month that also includes Blues games, which can be accessed through the FanDuel app or integrated through Prime Video. If MLB obtains streaming access for the Cardinals, expect games to air through the MLB app as part of the MLB.TV streaming package. This structure does allow subscriptions to market teams only for $129.99 per year ($11 per month).

The biggest question now becomes how do cable customers access Cardinals games? If the Cardinals go the route of the MLB Network option, expect games to be accessible as sub-channels to MLB Network, meaning MLB Network will have additional channels during game broadcasts for you to access local market games. This can be a huge plus to customers from DISH who do not have access anymore to the former Fox Sports/Bally Sports/FanDuel RSN contract. If the Cardinals decide to renegotiate the existing RSN contract with a new provider, Cardinals games will continue to air on the same channel as in years prior.