MLB Opening Day 2025: MLB Local Media Rolls Out WireCam, UmpCam, Shallow–Depth-of-Field RF for Five Teams

League department will produce all D-Backs, Guardians, Rockies, Twins, Padres games

Since launching Padres broadcasts in a matter of days in May 2023, the MLB Local Media team has continued to grow and enters the 2025 regular season producing and distributing local games for a record five clubs: the Arizona Diamondbacks, Cleveland Guardians, Colorado Rockies, Minnesota Twins, and San Diego Padres.

MLB Local Media will deploy WireCam for its five teams this season, including the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field.

It’s not just the number of games that has grown, however. MLB Local Media is also deploying significant production resources and a variety of specialty cameras — WireCam, UmpCam, shallow–depth-of-field RF — in all five markets.

“Our top priority has always been making our game broadcasts the best they can be,” says Doug Johnson, SVP, production/executive producer, Local Media, MLB. “2025 is shaping up to be our most innovative season yet. With the addition of WireCam in Minnesota and Cleveland, all five of our clubs now benefit from this dynamic perspective. We’re also expanding our use of UmpCam across all markets. Breaking that local vs. national barrier was a game-changer two years ago, and we love bringing that technology to the local level.”

This year, every market will have a shallow–depth-of-field RF camera, giving fans a cinematic feel to the action. To further enhance the productions, MLB Local Media is also introducing live drone coverage for selected games.

In addition to the specialty cameras, local games produced by MLB will offer features normally associated with nationally televised games: live look-ins to the MLB Replay Operations Center Powered by Zoom, on-field pre/postgame locations, and increased access, such as in-game interviews with players.

“Beyond technology, our biggest emphasis in 2025 is access,” says Johnson. “Our clubs have been incredible partners in prioritizing player storytelling. They see the value in showcasing personalities, and there’s no bigger megaphone for that than the game broadcast.”

In addition to producing games for five clubs, MLB Local Media is also innovating on the distribution side. Making a direct-to-consumer streaming option available for Diamondbacks, Guardians, Rockies, Twins, and Padres, the league can eliminate blackouts of local games.

Direct-to-consumer streaming options are available at Dbacks.tv, CleGuardians.tv, Rockies.tv, Twins.tv and Padres.tv. MLB has worked closely with clubs and RSNs to remove blackouts wherever possible, and 27 of the league’s 30 clubs have a DTC streaming option available. Nearly half the league (14 clubs) has added a DTC option during the offseason.

Visiting club channel finders, fans can easily locate where to watch games for Local Media’s five teams, depending on their video distributor, such as DIRECTV satellite and streaming, Comcast, Cox, Fubo, and Spectrum. Fans can find channel locations at the following sites:

• Diamondbacks: dbacks.com/watch
• Guardians: cleguardians.com/watch
• Rockies:  rockies.com/watch
• Twins: twins.com/watch
• Padres: padres.com/tunein