It was the 150th anniversary of professional baseball, dating back to the 1869 foundation of the Cincinnati Red Stockings.
[1] The 90th Major League Baseball All-Star Game was held on July 9 at Progressive Field, home of the Cleveland Guardians.
Teams began workouts and practice for spring training beginning in mid February.
[10] Prior to the start of the regular season, each team played between 22 and 35 spring training games, beginning on February 22.
The winners were selected based on merit, with no set number of nominees per position and no distinction between leagues.
[209] On January 29, 2018, Major League Baseball stated that the Cleveland Indians had agreed to stop using their "Chief Wahoo" logo—which has attracted controversy as a stereotype of Native Americans—on their uniforms in 2019, as it was deemed to be "no longer appropriate for on-field use".
In order to maintain trademarks and prevent it from falling into the public domain, the logo will continue to be used on a limited amount of team merchandise.
[212][213][214] All 30 teams wore patches this year on the right sleeve commemorating MLB's 150th anniversary.
This was the Texas Rangers' final season at Globe Life Park in Arlington (formerly known as the Ballpark in Arlington and Ameriquest Field), where the team played its final regular season home game with a 6–1 win over the New York Yankees on September 29 before moving to Globe Life Field in 2020.
[221] The stadium of the Seattle Mariners was renamed T-Mobile Park for the mobile provider (including its magenta-pink logo color as part of the park's branding atmosphere), after Safeco's contract with the team to call the venue Safeco Field expired at the end of the 2018 season.
[224] Fox also invoked a clause to give Yankee Global Enterprises the rights to buy their stake back in the YES Network.
[225] Including YES, the Fox Sports Regional Networks broadcast games for 15 of the 30 MLB teams.
[226] On March 8, YES was sold to a consortium including Yankee Global Enterprises, Amazon, and Sinclair Broadcast Group for $3.5 billion.
[227] Then on May 3, Sinclair and Entertainment Studios agreed to purchase the rest of the Fox Sports Regional Networks.
[228] The networks continued to use the Fox Sports branding for the rest of the regular season under a transitional license agreement.
[229] WGN-TV broadcasts of Chicago Cubs and White Sox games concluded at the end of the season.
[233][234] The league also reached a new digital partnership with the streaming service DAZN, who now airs a daily studio program, ChangeUp, which features live look-ins on games in progress.