LOVERRO: Nationals owe Manfred after assist in dissolving MASN deal. What will he want back?

OPINION:

The long nightmare of servitude under the grimy bootheel of the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network appears, finally, to be nearly over for the Washington Nationals.

Major League Baseball announced Monday that after this season, Washington can break the chains binding the franchise to the Baltimore Orioles-owned regional sports television network and seek a new and hopefully better deal for the team’s television rights.

For the Lerner family, that ought to be simple, right?

“After this term, the Nationals will be free to explore alternatives for their television rights for the 2026 season and beyond,” MLB said. “As part of the settlement, all disputes related to past media rights between the Nationals, Orioles and MASN have been resolved, and all litigation will be dismissed.”

There are many lawyers weeping over this news.

MASN began in 2004 when, at the last minute before the Montreal Expos moved to the District, Orioles owner and super litigator Peter Angelos, who claimed Washington as his territory, bullied MLB officials into a one-sided deal that gave him control over Nationals television rights.

MLB’s concession to Angelos caught everyone in Washington by surprise.

The MLB-Angelos deal died, for all intents and purposes, nearly 20 years later, when the long-time Orioles owner died on March 23, 2024.

It took nearly a year to make sure the pugnacious Baltimore lawyer was actually dead before they could officially give the Nationals their freedom.

But it is done now, and supposedly this represents a new dawn for the Nationals — television rights, stadium naming rights and a jersey patch sponsorship.

“Summertime is when the Nats are top of mind for our fan base, and we think that’s the perfect time to make an announcement,” Nationals chief revenue officer Mike Carney told Forbes about a stadium naming rights and jersey patch deal.

The Lerner family has turned down numerous stadium rights proposals over the years. Carney said the “brands weren’t the right fit.”

Whoever the club chooses to partner with this time must demonstrate “shared values,” Carney said, according to Forbes.

This from a baseball team that sold stadium signage and naming rights for their luxury club behind home plate in 2022 to a cryptocurrency company that went belly-up a few months after the team signed a $38 million deal. At least they got the money up front. Those are true Lerner “shared values.”

What could go wrong?

The television rights may no longer be under MASN control next season, but that reality brings its own new set of complications involving Nationals principal owner Mark Lerner, his Monumental Sports partner Transparent Ted Leonsis and baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred.

Transparent Ted tried to buy the baseball team when the family announced it was exploring a sale in April 2022.

Those talks failed to produce an agreement, and since then the family has said the team is no longer on the market — though sources say there is a divide between Mark Lerner, who wants to keep the team, and other family members who would like to sell.

It’s no secret that Transparent Ted sees the Nationals as valuable programming for his regional Monumental Sports Network.

A summer of 162 games would be a huge boost to his network’s bottom line, and, even if the Lerners hold onto the team, Transparent Ted will still likely bid for their television rights.

But he may be blocked out of such a deal by MLB, as the commissioner has well-publicized plans to nationalize local television rights for as many teams as he can convince to be part of the umbrella.

Now, the Yankees, Dodgers, Red Sox, Cubs and Mets aren’t going along with that. Their local television rights are money-makers for them.

But the other teams that face uncertainty about their rights would likely be recruited. The more teams, the more powerful the MLB network Manfred hopes to put together. The Nationals are a prime candidate to be included in his plans.

Manfred’s office was instrumental in brokering the new agreement that frees Washington from Baltimore’s control.

David Rubenstein, who purchased the Orioles from the Angelos family in March 2024, met with Mark Lerner at one point to discuss the Nationals’ MASN issues, but that meeting, like many negotiations with the Lerners, went nowhere. It took Manfred to finally step in.

For that — extricating the Nationals from MASN control — the commissioner may expect some cooperation with his rights venture.

That may leave Transparent Ted with Washington Freedom Major League Cricket matches for summer programming.

Crickets.

• You can hear Thom Loverro on “The Kevin Sheehan Show” podcast.