Diamond Sports Group has decided not to pay the San Diego Padres their latest rights fee, a monumental development that will revert the team’s broadcasting rights to Major League Baseball and establish precedent for an uncertain, rapidly evolving landscape.

Diamond, the Sinclair subsidiary that operates under the name Bally Sports, skipped its payment to the Padres a couple of weeks ago and had until the end of its grace period on Tuesday to make the team whole and maintain their long-term agreement. Choosing not to meant Tuesday’s game against the Miami Marlins was the last Padres game under the Bally Sports umbrella. Moving forward—starting Wednesday, continuing through the end of the season and resuming in perpetuity—MLB will air Padres games through its streaming service and on different cable channels.

MLB will provide Padres games through its MLB.TV app for free through Sunday. After that, in-market fans can continue to stream games for $19.99 a month or $74.99 for the rest of the regular season on MLB.com and Padres.com (postseason games air on national platforms). Through this process, Padres games will no longer be subject to blackouts. Local fans can also watch Padres games through a variety of cable providers—AT&T U-Verse, DirecTV, Cox and Spectrum—on a different channel. fuboTV will also continue to air Padres games through its platform.

Major League Baseball appears to be running out of patience with bankrupt media company Diamond Sports.

MLB filed an emergency motion asking the court to compel Diamond’s Bally Sports regional sports networks to make their overdue payments to the Cleveland Guardians and Minnesota Twins, according to The Athletic.

Bally RSNs hold media rights to 14 MLB teams and Diamond has been trying to thread the needle by cherry-picking the best deals.

It’s making payments to teams with favorable contractual terms such as the loaded San Diego Padres and trying to cut ties with clubs, with which it doesn’t have favorable contractual terms.

Three MLB clubs reportedly haven’t been paid yet: the Guardians, Twins, and Arizona Diamondbacks.
In the meantime, there’s been no interruption in coverage, as the embattled Bally RSNs continue to show games.
MLB is seeking an order by April 13 that would allow it to terminate the deals and let teams take back their media rights.

Just ask the Twins, who were one of two teams that did not receive payment from Diamond Sports on Monday, as was scheduled. The other unpaid team is AL Central rival, Cleveland. At least eight other teams did receive payment as scheduled.

Diamond Sports missed rights fees payments to the Guardians and the Twins and entered a 15-day cure period to make the payment without penalty, according to several sources.

Diamond, which owns and operates the Bally Sports-branded RSNs, made payments on time to at least eight teams within the past week: the Angels, Braves, Brewers, Cardinals, Marlins, Rays, Royals and Tigers.

Why did Twins get skipped?

Why did the Twins get left out, you ask? According to Ourand’s sources, it’s because of their refusal to negotiate a new deal with Bally Sports. There’s only one year remaining on their current contract and the team “has not been receptive to cutting a new deal”.

One reason for withholding the Twins payment is due not so much to the size of its rights contract but it’s length. The Twins deal with Bally Sports North ends after this season, and sources say the team has not been receptive to cutting a new deal.