How to watch the Cleveland Guardians in 2025: Schedule, broadcast info, blackout rules and national games
Cleveland baseball can be unhinged revelry, or a biblical terror, and everything in between. This franchise has won at least 90 games in six of the last eight full seasons (it went 35-25 in the abridged 2020 pandemic season, a 94.5-win pace). It's undoubtedly one of the better teams in the AL Central, and the leaders of last year's ALCS group are back in tow for another go.
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Baseball season connotes spring bloom, summer sunburns and gorgeous green pastures. But watching all 162 games of an MLB campaign has never been more needlessly complicated, due to the overflow of new streaming options and the league's frustrating blackout rules. In response, here is our guide to the madness, specifically for Guardians fans.
Below, you'll find information on your squad's regional sports network, its national TV slate and the ever-evolving rules surrounding streaming. Make sure you're following the Guardians on The Athletic. Senior writer Zack Meisel has been on the beat for more than a decade — dispatching from Carnegie and Ontario — and is the author of 'Cleveland Rocked.' His feature on Steven Kwan's leadership and mental discipline is a fantastic read.
Fubo is a cable-cutting streaming platform that offers local and national channels, along with add-on sports packages. Any game on Guardians.TV, ESPN, Fox or MLB Network can be streamed here (more on those below). TBS games cannot.
What you need to watch these games: The 'pro' plan starts at $84.99 per month, with an additional charge for 4K Ultra HD. For more baseball, there is the MLB.TV add-on, which streams every out-of-market game for $29.99 a month, and the 'sports lite' package (with MLB Network) for $9.99 a month.
This is the club's internally owned regional sports network (RSN). Bally Sports Great Lakes has now been replaced by CLEGuardians.TV, the new provider for all local games. An MLB press release claims that the new situation will make regional broadcasts available in 235 percent more homes.
The crew itself remains unchanged. Matt Underwood, Rick Manning and Andre Knott are together for their 11th season. Manning manned center field for Cleveland from 1975-83, winning one Gold Glove and collecting nearly 1,400 hits. Underwood has been on the air with Cleveland in some capacity since 2000, and came up early in his career via the local WEWS station. Al Pawlowski does 'Guardians Live.' Former four-year Cleveland catcher Chris Gimenez also makes the rounds, as do fellow alums like Ben Broussard and Jason Kipnis.
What you need to watch these games: Fubo, DirecTV Stream (starting $80-90 monthly), Guardians.TV app ($19.99 per month or $99.99/year for a team pass).
What you need to watch these games: A carrier in your territory that has Guardians.TV. Those include AT&T U-Verse, Cox, DirecTV and Spectrum. Although the app is new, most traditional television subscribers can still access local games using their remotes.
There will be approximately 150 games on CLEGuardians.TV in 2025, with a dozen or so national looks outlined in the next sections.
Maybe you're an Ohio expat far from the local broadcast borders. Maybe you saw 'Major League' in 1989 and got hooked. The MLB.TV package has you covered regardless, with every regular-season inning from across the league (excluding national games and in-market games for your region). It costs $150 annually. Fubo offers the MLB.TV add-on for $29.99 a month.
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Meanwhile, MLB Network airs almost 300 local broadcasts for national audiences, so out-of-towners can catch some Guardians games there. MLB Network also offers 26 unique, produced-in-house 'showcase' games that are not subject to local blackouts.
What you need to watch these games: MLB Network for select games / MLB.TV for all of them.
The league has partnered with ESPN since 1990; that ends this fall. Yup, the purveyors of the iconic music are indeed opting out of their remaining baseball broadcasts. For this season, you'll still find select primetime matchups here. Jon Sciambi (play-by-play for the Cubs) and Karl Ravech are usually on the mic, alongside five-time World Series winner David Cone and one-time Cleveland utility hitter Eduardo Pérez. Generational baseball narrator Joe Buck returned to the booth for a memorable Opening Day affair, but he's sticking with football now. For ESPN, think Sundays, especially 'Sunday Night Baseball.'
Cleveland has one ESPN matchup left on its first-half schedule: Sunday, May 11, interleague action against the Phillies. The second-half schedule will be announced later.
Fox is where you'll hear Joe Davis (voice of the Dodgers), Jason Benetti (Tigers) or Adam Amin (the NBA's Chicago Bulls) on the call. Retired Silver Slugger catcher A.J. Pierzynski, playoff bellwether Adam Wainwright, 1992 Rookie of the Year Eric Karros and Dontrelle Willis (aka the D-Train!) rotate in the booth. Three Hall-of-Famers are on this network: Derek Jeter and David Ortiz during the pregame and John Smoltz for color commentary. The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal can be seen reporting from the field, too. Fox usually has a Saturday spot.
The Guards get two Fox spots with the rival Detroit hosting on May 24 and then welcoming the Tigers on July 5. The team will participate in another Fox home-and-home series with fellow AL Central team Kansas City, visiting on July 26 and hosting on Sept. 11. And a fifth Fox look is set for Aug. 30, with Julio Rodríguez and the Mariners packing for Progressive Field. Additionally, there are two FS1 reservations for Aug. 25 versus Tampa Bay and a third primetime Tigers tilt at Comerica on Sept. 17.
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This is the Tuesday action, with Brian Anderson (Brewers) and Ron Darling (Mets) as the mainstays. It's a stacked pre-postgame show with all-time great Pedro Martínez, 2007 NL MVP Jimmy Rollins and three-time All-Star Curtis Granderson. TBS games can also be streamed on Max. The playoff broadcasts add decorated former player and manager Dusty Baker to the studio. Bob Costas was on the mic here before his retirement last fall.
We've got one Cleveland game on TBS: June 3 at the Bronx to try Aaron Judge and the 'torpedoing' Yankee bats.
The purple metropolis now has 'MLB Sunday Leadoff' games free from blackout restrictions. Roku has two Guardians games for the Sunday wakeup slot: June 29, hosting Nolan Arenado and the St. Louis Cardinals, and May 25 against the Tigers (the people have spoken, and they want more Cleveland-Detroit action in their lives).
Like with Roku, you can stream more baseball games from your smart TV. Unlike Roku, the Apple TV+ games are regionally blacked out. Alex Faust (also of NHL and Jeopardy fame) is on these calls, as is Wayne Randazzo (Angels).
Friday's June 27 series opener with the Cardinals is the team's last appearance at Apple for 2025.
For national MLB games in general, think:
Streaming and betting/odds links in this article are provided by partners of The Athletic. Restrictions may apply. The Athletic maintains full editorial independence. Partners have no control over or input into the reporting or editing process and do not review stories before publication.
(Photo by Jason Miller / Getty Images)
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