After years of complaints from the fans who cut the cable, the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals have finally come through with their promise. Starting on Monday, MASN+ will offer a direct-to-consumer streaming service. It will be priced at a nominal $19.99 per month or $89.99 for the whole season. The fans have been waiting for this for a long time, and they finally have it.

“Fans haven’t been quiet about wanting this,” said Orioles President of Business Operations Catie Griggs. Plus, now with MASN+ available, fans can watch all the Orioles and Nationals games with no blackouts. The service will be available through MASNSports.com as well as apps. These apps will be available on iOS, Android, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Roku.

Moreover, Catie Griggs mentioned that additional devices might be added in the future.

But launching this streaming service didn’t come easy. It came after a long-standing dispute over the local media rights that the Orioles and Nationals had to settle. While the Nationals will be on MASN for the rest of the season, they will be able to negotiate their own deal starting in 2026. For Orioles fans, though, this is an exciting time; they can catch all the games without the restrictions that come with a traditional cable subscription.

Moreover, the future of RSN isn’t certain anymore. There are new headlines every day, about things not working out, so MASN+ comes as a breather for the team. Plus, in hindsight, this move comes way late because other teams have already moved to D2C options before. But shockingly or not, Orioles fans are not thrilled with this platform. At least, that’s what the online reactions say.

Baltimore Orioles fans are far from thrilled with MASN+ launch

One person couldn’t help but point out that the franchise can’t do anything right. And fans truly have reached that breaking point. Between the Orioles’ underwhelming rotation and players who were supposed to be game-changers failing to deliver, the frustrations are only growing. Look at Charlie Morton! He has a disastrous 10.89 ERA, and his inability to even go further than five innings is breaking fans. After years of rebuilding, this is not what they want to see.

A user gave a grim picture about how now no one even cares about the team. And it’s not just the performance of the team that has fallen; it’s also the fan base they have lost along the way. MASN subscribers have dropped from 5.6 million in 2018 to just 3.3 million in 2023. Sure, the team is more competitive, but with the previous blackouts and the struggles of the teams, the fan viewership went down. And now the same story is repeating, and no one is willing to spend their money to watch their teams lose.

Every fan wants results, and they don’t want teams to make excuses. Right now, the only focus Baltimore Orioles fans have is on Charlie Morton. That is because his performance, or lack of performance, has turned heads. They invested $15 million in him only for fans to watch him pull up the worst ERA in baseball. Spending money on players who don’t pull their weight is a risk they seem to be taking. Plus, don’t get started on the pitching concerns—they are just holding the team back.

A heads-up by the fan on how it’s the wrong day to launch this. And well, it makes sense given they lost to the Cincinnati Reds, 24-2. It’s not funny, but almost embarrassing at this point. Morton’s outing? Well, he allowed 7 runs in just 2⅓ innings. Fans were left fuming, and it’s easy to see why the timing to launch this service couldn’t have been worse.

Fans are not holding back, and the sarcasm just keeps rolling. This fan took a rather sly jab on Morton and his contract. But can you blame them? Morton has a 1.1 win below replacement level and a record of 0-5 in his starts this season. This makes him a liability, and fans are actually pitching for the team to let go of him. He right now seems to be the sore sport for the team.

Orioles fans are tired of wanting to see something different. The team right now needs to not just rest the game but also find a way to reconnect with the fan base. What do you think?