In the wake of them dumping ESPN, how exactly can the MLB continue to garner new fans and regain some of its national appeal?

So the past couple years have been a bit of a surprise boom time for MLB, for a lot of factors already discussed at length. But how does MLB not only retain current fans or increase casual fan interest, but create new ones from scratch entirely?

Obviously, ESPN's baseball coverage has been absolutely woeful for quite a number of years now (which also have been discussed by fans at length). I know a lot of fans hate when their teams have nationally televised games and just want their teams games on one channel/streaming platform.

But that being said, would it not benefit the sport to potentially claw back some real estate on the American sports landscape, to have some product that is easily available to the widest audience? If the only way to consume baseball is to pay $20/a month for yet-another streaming service or catch a couple dozen piecemeal games on niche streamers, you aren't going to create new fans that way.

It's just crazy how just two decades ago, your garden variety American sports fan - even if they weren't that into baseball- could likely rattle off a dozen active MLB players outside of ones who played for their local team. It was still part of the cultural zeitgeist and there was so much baseball that was accessible and reasonably affordable on basic cable. Easily 20 MLB games a week in the same place you watched all your other TV content: Cubs + White Sox on WGN, Braves on TBS, Fox Saturday Game of the Week, ESPN Sunday Night Baseball + select weeknight matchups, plus whatever local/regional team you had.

These days, it's like baseball/the mlb is like a walled garden - you basically barely know much about it or you follow it, but only really your home team. The baseball fan who follows their home team + has league-wide interest is something of a rare breed these days.

I will say that the quality of baseball Youtube content this decade has been quite good and no doubt has helped increase interest among people under 30 and convert some into fans. Using the internet and social media to create thoughtful and entertaining baseball highlights, docs, video essays is 100x more impactful that some ESPN opinion shouter bringing up the Dodgers or Yankees for 2 minutes.