Blue Jays will play on Sunday Night Baseball for the first time in a decade

After a decade away the Toronto Blue Jays are returning to Sunday Night Baseball. In a tweet from Mitch Bannon of The Athletic, the American League champion Blue Jays will get to play on the national broadcast in 2026 in a game against the Kansas City Royals, and it won't be their only appearance on national television in the USA.

Blue Jays will play on Sunday Night Baseball for the first time in a decade

Their Sunday Night Baseball" game takes place on Sept. 6 when they visit the Royals in Kansas City. They'll also be featured on several Sunday afternoon games that are a part of a new "Sunday Leadoff" schedule that is being produced by NBC/Peacock. The Blue Jays will appear in four of those contests; three of those games take place in May with the fourth being in July.

On May 3, Toronto plays in Minnesota against the Twins at 12:30 p.m. On May 24 they will host the Pittsburgh Pirates at Noon. It's another Noon start time on May 31 when they are in Baltimore to play the Orioles. Lastly, they'll be at home on July 19 with the Chicago White Sox in town for a Noon start.

ESPN had the rights to the Sunday Night Baseball programming since 1990 before opting out of it's deal to broadcast those games from 2026 to 2028. For Blue Jays fans, this doesn't change anything for how the games will be viewed in Canada.

All of these games will still air on Rogers Sportsnet, which should ease some fears. Many Blue Jays fans will remember how Blue Jays' owners Rogers Media had to make a few late season deals to get the rights to simulcast some games that were exclusive to Apple TV. Those games were potentially AL division clinching games and they were able to get the rights to air one of those games on Sportsnet, but it did cause a lot of confusion and frustration for fans north of the border.

While the games on Sunday Leadoff and Sunday Night Baseball won't carry the same kind of implications as a division clinching game since they are relatively early in the season, it's still good to know that Blue Jays fans won't have to miss these specific national broadcasts.