Why MLB invited hundreds of influencers to postseason games

A few months ago, the USTA faced widespread backlash because of the influx of influencers at this year’s US Open.

That didn’t stop Major League Baseball from doubling down on content creators during its postseason.

MLB is inviting more influencers to ballparks than ever before. More than 200 influencers are planned to attend postseason games this year and are expected to generate more than 100 million views from their content, according to the league.

Influencers, and certain media partners, also have “access above and beyond just going to a game,” Cameron Gidari, VP of social media and innovation, told Marketing Brew—but to avoid blinding anyone with a ring light, there are a few stipulations.

“They don’t want to break the rules…so let’s make sure that they’re informed ahead of time,” he said. “Let’s make sure they know what the guardrails are, and we have found that just by doing that, we feel really comfortable about who we’re bringing. A lot of that comes down to the vetting ahead of time…You do the prep ahead of time so that you can have the confidence that it will work out, and it’s less scary in the moment.”

The league’s post-season approach is reflective of a broader revamping of its social and influencer strategy that started around this time last year. Coupled with other initiatives like partnering with popular book, movie, and television franchises, it stands to extend MLB’s fandom to audiences who’ve not previously considered the sport—and deepen the engagement of existing fans during a World Series that features two small-market teams.

Tryouts

The change in tactics is largely driven by Rachel Richter, MLB’s director of influencer strategy, who joined the league last year, Gidari told us, and the approach is rooted in a hands-off philosophy designed to keep control over influencer content in the hands of the creators themselves.

“Something Rachel told me when she first got here was, ‘We’re a stage—we can just be the stage,’” he said. “They want a stage to create from, and so we found that that has allowed us to not only broaden the types of influencers that we’re working with, it’s allowed us to ramp up the total number of influencers that we work with throughout the season.”

When the social and influencer teams first started testing the new philosophy during the postseason last year, they brought 130 influencers to games, who posted 1,150 pieces of content that collectively generated more than 86 million views and 7.9 million engagements, all unpaid, according to MLB. That’s up from 32 (primarily paid) influencers posting 115 pieces of content for 48 million views and 3.5 million engagements during the 2024 postseason, per the league.

During the 2026 regular season, MLB worked with 250 influencers for a total of 3,000 pieces of content, resulting in more than 300 million views.

MLB’s influencer partners dictate their own content, but first, they have to clear a vetting process that starts with determining cultural niches to target, like fashion, food, parenting, or travel, Gidari said. From there, his team looks for indications of an “authentic connection” between the influencer and baseball, he said, then works on building a long-term relationship with the creator, fostered by the league’s in-house influencer team.

Athletes 🤝 influencers

In addition to its hundreds of influencer partners, MLB also has hundreds of active players, many of whom have significant social followings of their own. For Gidari, more creator content doesn’t mean less player content.

“I don’t see that as mutually exclusive,” he said. “A lot of the time, influencers are who unlock these other sides of our players, and so part of it is, ‘How do you find the player interest, and then find the influencer that matches that interest, and how do you connect them?’”

During this year’s All-Star Week, MLB put on a “creator experience” with more than 70 influencers, including a red-carpet livestream hosted by Kendall Vertes, who interviewed players and their families. Vertes and the other creators generated more than 1,000 pieces of content, up from 126 in 2025, for more than 59 million views, an increase of about 139% YoY.

Celebrities also have a presence at MLB games and in the league’s content. Dua Lipa, Callum Turner, Timothée Chalamet, Spike Lee, Martha Stewart, and Hasan Minhaj were among the celebs at Game 3 of Yankees vs. Rays earlier this month, the league touted in a press release.

MLB’s most engaged-with post during the week of Oct. 5 was a TikTok of actor Belmont Cameli of Off Campus fame throwing the first pitch at a White Sox game, with over 37,000 engagements and a video engagement rate of about 24%, according to content intelligence platform Mondo Metrics. By Oct. 23, the TikTok had topped 60,000 engagements and maintained a 23% video engagement rate, more than double the typical rate across MLB’s TikToks that week, per Mondo Metrics founder and CEO, Nick Cicero.

Watch out

The postseason influencer activations will have an IRL component, too. For fans who can’t attend games in person, MLB hosted creator watch parties for the Division Series in New York, and the Championship Series in Los Angeles, expanding the league’s brand presence offline.

Moving forward, Gidari said he’s focused on “investing in headline-worthy, conversation-generating content” all season long, not just during tentpole moments, to grow the league’s reach, attract new audiences, and deepen the passion of baseball’s core fans.

That means working with creators both inside and outside of the baseball arena to provide a sense of access to fans, especially during baseball’s biggest month.

“Postseason baseball, the atmosphere is unmatched,” Gidari said. “You hear it through the speakers, you see it with fans. There is nothing else like it, and we try to bring that to life in everything that we do. Influencers are such an authentic way to capture that energy and that excitement, and so we think it’s really important that we have influencers in every city, in every round.”