Bob Costas sees Isiah Kiner-Falefa’s contract as a sign of MLB’s financial strength

Bob Costas is essential when telling the story of baseball, while Isiah Kiner-Falefa is not.

During a recent CBS Sports Radio appearance, the 71-year-old Costas made a good case for why Major League Baseball is in a good financial spot. The success of MLB is not due to the massive contracts handed out to Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto by the Los Angeles Dodgers this offseason, but rather the IKFs of the world being handed out contracts to the tune of a two-year, $15 million deal (by the Toronto Blue Jays, in his case).

“When you look at local or regional ratings for baseball in the summertime, they’re still very strong,” Costas said. “And if the game were not a thriving business, forget about Ohtani’s contract or Judge’s contract or Bryce Harper’s contract – you wouldn’t just look up and barely bat an eye when Isiah Kiner-Falefa signs this week for $7.5 million a year.

“If Isiah Kiner-Falefa, no disrespect intended, was released tomorrow, no one outside his own family would be aware of it. So if the game is able to pay good or average players that kind of money, the game is obviously in good financial shape – even if there are inequities competitively between the biggest market teams and other teams.”

Costas sees baseball’s financial health reflected in high TV ratings, big contracts, and even seemingly “excessive” deals for lesser-known players, highlighting financial robustness despite competitive imbalances.

At the same time, Costas views MLB’s issues nationally. And in doing so, he emphasized how baseball’s past national TV presence built strong fan connections through consistent exposure, leading to even a rain-delayed World Series beating Monday Night Football in ratings.

“It used to be that the Saturday Game of the Week on NBC really was the Game of the Week,” he said. “That would get ratings. In some cases, it’s higher than postseason games get now. The LCS was either on ABC or NBC — both (League Championship Series), and then, the other network would have the World Series. So, the teams in the World Series didn’t arrive from out of the shadows. They had lots of national exposure, and their storylines were established. I think of the ’86 postseason, maybe the greatest of all time. The Astros and the Mets, the Angels, and the Red Sox both completely classic series that led to an unforgettable World Series between the Mets and the Red Sox.

“The whole country, by the time that World Series started, they followed the two LCS. They knew these teams. And the proof of this is that Game 7 of that World Series was scheduled for Sunday night, and it rained. And so Game 7 was played on Monday night, opposite the then-Washington Redskins versus the New York Giants on Monday Night Football on ABC, and the baseball game got a rating in the 30s, and the football game got a rating in the single digits. That’s how different it was then.”

Now, you may ask, how does IKF fit into this picture?

Well, while Costas sees IKF’s contract as a sign of financial strength, one could argue that it also exposes a disconnect between the league’s financial health and its ability to generate national interest. Big money for niche players isn’t enough to revitalize viewership and long are the days that a World Series game is beating Monday Night Football in ratings.

[Audacy]