ESPN and Major League Baseball have reached a preliminary three-year agreement that would make the Disney-owned sports network the league’s primary digital distributor, according to people familiar with the talks. The framework gives ESPN the exclusive right to sell out-of-market regular-season games—content currently offered through the MLB.tv package—and the in-market streaming rights for five clubs whose local broadcasts are under league control: the Cleveland Guardians, Minnesota Twins, Colorado Rockies, San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks. The arrangement would fold MLB.tv into ESPN’s new direct-to-consumer platform, which debuted this week at $29.99 a month, creating a single digital destination for baseball fans. Under the proposal, subscribers would pay an additional fee for full out-of-market access, while local fans of the five teams could stream their clubs’ games through the same service. ESPN would also retain roughly 30 exclusive nationally televised games each season, though its long-running Sunday night franchise would shift to a weeknight. Negotiators aim to convert the framework into a finalized contract by September, the people said. The deal would restore a significant baseball presence for ESPN, which earlier this year scaled back traditional national broadcasts, and advance MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred’s strategy of packaging local rights as cord-cutting accelerates. Financial terms were not disclosed.