2024 Major League Baseball season

The 2024 Major League Baseball season (MLB) began on March 20–21 with a two-game series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres held in Seoul, South Korea, before the regular season proper ran from March 28 to September 30. The 94th All-Star Game was played on July 16 at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, with the American League winning, 5–3. The postseason then began on October 1 and concluded with Game 5 of the World Series on October 30. Going into the season, the defending World Series champions were the Texas Rangers from the 2023 season. During the offseason, the Oakland Athletics were approved by MLB owners to relocate to Las Vegas in 2028. It was also the team's final season in Oakland as they left the Oakland Coliseum to temporarily play at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento for three years.
Only two teams were unable to complete the entire 162-game regular season schedule, as the game between the Houston Astros and the Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field on September 29 was scrapped due to rain and never made up, owing to scheduling constraints and the game being inconsequential to the playoffs. It would be the first time since 2021 that a few teams played more regular season games than the others.
It was also the first season since 2014 that no team won at least 100 games (not counting the shortened 2020 season).
With their finish of 41–121, the Chicago White Sox achieved the record for most losses in the Modern Era (since 1901), surpassing the New York Mets of 1962.
On July 13, 2023, Major League Baseball released its 2024 schedule. There were 162 games scheduled for all teams. As has been the case since 2023, each team was scheduled to play 13 games against their division rivals, totaling 52 games. Each team would play six games against six opponents and seven games against four opponents in the same league for a total of 64 games. Each team would also play 46 interleague games, including a four-game home-and-home series against their designated interleague rival.
As part of the MLB World Tour, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres opened the season at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on March 20–21, in the first-ever MLB regular season games played in South Korea. Opening Day in North America occurred on March 28, with all but four clubs in action with the Milwaukee Brewers, New York Mets, Atlanta Braves, and Philadelphia Phillies opening on March 29 because of a postponement due to inclement weather. Other MLB World Tour series include the Houston Astros and the Colorado Rockies at Estadio Alfredo Harp Helú in Mexico City on April 27–28, the New York Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies at London Stadium in London on June 8–9, and the Boston Red Sox and the Tampa Bay Rays in spring training at Estadio Quisqueya in Santo Domingo on March 9–10.
The San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals played at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama on June 20, in a game honoring the Negro leagues and Hall of Fame outfielder Willie Mays, who was supposed to attend the game, but passed away two days before. The 94th All-Star Game was played on July 16, hosted by the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, with the American League prevailing, 5–3. The MLB Little League Classic at Bowman Field in Williamsport, Pennsylvania was played on August 18 with the New York Yankees taking on the Detroit Tigers.
On December 21, 2023, MLB announced a set of rule changes to take effect in 2024.
Spring training for the 2024 season began in late February and lasted through most of March. Teams began workouts and practice for spring training beginning in mid-February. Pitchers and catchers reported first, followed by position players a few days later.
Prior to the start of the regular season, each team played between 27 and 34 spring training games (with the exception of the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers, who played a shortened spring training of 21 and 22 games respectively, due to their regular season games in Seoul), beginning on February 22. There were several times during spring training when a team had two different squads playing different teams simultaneously. In addition to spring training games, teams occasionally played exhibition games with non-MLB teams, such as Minor League Baseball teams, independent teams, or college teams. These exhibition games are not counted in spring training standings. Spring training ended on March 26, two days before the Opening Day.
During spring training in 2024, MLB launched a new initiative called MLB Spring Breakout. Each organization puts together a team of their best prospects to compete against another organization's prospects from March 14 to March 17.
The postseason began on October 1 and ended on October 30 with the Los Angeles Dodgers defeating the New York Yankees in the 2024 World Series in five games.
Players are selected through fan votes (50%) and votes from a panel of experts (50%). The winners will be selected based on merit, with no set number of nominees per position and no distinction between leagues.
This is the second year where teams added advertisement patches to their uniforms. The following teams have announced their uniform advertisements.
Eight teams unveiled new City Connect uniforms and wore them for the first time during the season. Additionally, the Los Angeles Dodgers unveiled their City Connect this year, becoming the first team to change their City Connect uniform since the program's inception.
Prior to the season, it was announced that 2024 would be the final season the Nationals would wear their "cherry blossom" City Connect uniforms. Late in the season, the Giants, Rockies, Marlins, and Astros each announced that they would be retiring their respective City Connect uniforms in favor of new designs for the 2025 season.
The Oakland Athletics lease with the Oakland Coliseum expires after the end of the season. On June 15, 2023, the team officially announced they would begin the relocation process to Las Vegas. The move was approved by the other MLB owners on November 16. The Athletics would move into a new 33,000-seat fixed roof ballpark by the 2028 season. On April 4, 2024, the Athletics announced they would play at Sutter Health Park in Sacramento, California for the next three seasons with an option for 2028 before moving to Las Vegas, making this their final season in Oakland.
This was the third year of the existing seven-year deals with ESPN, Fox, TBS, Apple TV+, and MLB Network. This was the first year of a multi-year deal with TelevisaUnivision.
During the postseason, the ESPN networks and ABC aired all four Wild Card Series. TNT Sports (TNT, TBS, and TruTV) carried the American League Division Series and the American League Championship Series, and Fox Sports (Fox and FS1) broadcast the National League Division Series, the National League Championship Series, and the World Series.
ESPN Deportes and Fox Deportes hold rights to Spanish-language broadcasts of the postseason games aired by ESPN and Fox respectively. As part of MLB's agreement with TelevisaUnivision, Spanish-language coverage of the ALDS and ALCS aired on TUDN, UniMás, and Univision, and streaming on Vix. Spanish language coverage of Game 1 of the 2024 World Series also aired on Univision, marking the first time that a Spanish language network has aired the World Series on broadcast television.
Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) wound down its AT&T SportsNet regional sports network (RSN) business prior to the start of the 2024 season. The move affected the Colorado Rockies on AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain, the Houston Astros on AT&T SportsNet Southwest, and the Pittsburgh Pirates on AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh.
The Astros and the NBA's Houston Rockets took over AT&T SportsNet Southwest and rebranded it to the Space City Home Network after the end of the Astros' regular season on October 3, 2023. Fenway Sports Group, owners of the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins and Boston Red Sox, took over AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh, rebranding it to just SportsNet Pittsburgh on October 2, 2023. On December 13, 2023, the Pirates announced they would jointly own SportsNet Pittsburgh beginning on January 1, 2024. NESN, through Fenway Sports Group, will operate the network. In February, MLB Local Media took over production of Rockies games.
WBD had owned a 29% share of Root Sports Northwest, the Mariners' RSN, through the end of the 2023 season, and had produced Mariners telecasts. The Mariners took full control of the network on January 1, 2024.
This would be the second season affected by the February 2023 bankruptcy of Diamond Sports Group, owners of the Bally Sports regional sports networks.
On February 2, 2024, Diamond Sports announced agreements with the Rangers, Guardians, and Twins that will result in a decreased rights fee and will end their contracts with Diamond after the 2024 season.
On September 30, 2024, NBC Sports Chicago, the television home of the White Sox, ended its operations after 20 years. The White Sox, the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks and the NBA's Chicago Bulls will move to the new Chicago Sports Network (CHSN) in the autumn as a joint venture with Standard Media Group.
The following players and coaches retired during the 2024 season and before the start of the 2025 campaign: