TORONTO – Baseball fans in Canada should not expect a repeat of a deal that allowed Sportsnet to air a simulcast of Apple TV’s Friday Night Baseball broadcast that featured the Toronto Blue Jays last week.
As a result of the agreement, the streamer was given the rights for this Friday’s game between the Blue Jays and Tampa Bay Rays. The matchup could be a potential division clincher for Toronto.
“Apple has it exclusively,” a Sportsnet spokesperson said Thursday afternoon in an email.
Sportsnet, the Canadian team’s domestic rights-holder, reached a deal with the Blue Jays, Apple TV and Major League Baseball ahead of last Friday’s game between Toronto and Kansas City.
That matchup had the potential to be a playoff clincher for the Blue Jays. The Royals pounded Toronto 20-1 that night but the Blue Jays would secure a post-season berth two days later.
A similar scenario exists this week. Depending on results from Thursday’s games, the Blue Jays could have a chance on Friday to win the American League East Division title for the first time since 2015.
However, instead of airing on Sportsnet, the Jays-Rays matchup will only be shown on Apple TV+, leaving non-subscribers without a viewing option.
There were no plans to change that arrangement, a baseball source confirmed Thursday.
Almost all Blue Jays games air on Sportsnet, but a handful of Toronto games throughout the 162-game season air on Apple TV+ as part of the streamer’s partnership with MLB.
Entering play Thursday, the Blue Jays had a magic number of four to clinch the East. Toronto was tied with the New York Yankees for first place but the Blue Jays hold the tiebreaker advantage.
Chances of a Friday clinch scenario were certainly possible but appeared unlikely.
A Toronto win over the Boston Red Sox on Thursday night, coupled with a New York loss to the Chicago White Sox, would trim the Blue Jays’ magic number to two.
However, the slumping Blue Jays had dropped six of their last seven games entering the series finale against the Red Sox, who were only three games back in the East.
The Yankees, meanwhile, were looking to complete a three-game sweep of the lowly White Sox, who are in last place in the American League.
On Friday, the Blue Jays-Rays game will start a couple minutes after the start of the Yankees-Orioles matchup. If Toronto entered that game with a magic number of two, the Blue Jays would claim the East crown if they beat the Rays and if New York lost to Baltimore.
The regular season continues through Sunday.
The top two division winners will earn byes to the best-of-five division series. The other four AL playoff teams will play in best-of-three wild-card series.
Toronto made the playoffs three times between 2020 and ‘23 but was swept in the wild-card series each time.
The Blue Jays haven’t won a post-season game since 2016. Toronto’s last World Series title came in 1993.
Sportsnet and the Blue Jays are owned by Rogers Communications.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 25, 2025.
