Manfred predicts O's, Nats will return to MLB committee

SAN DIEGO (AP) Commissioner Rob Manfred thinks the Baltimore Orioles eventually will be forced to take their television dispute with the Washington Nationals back to a committee of baseball executives.

New York Supreme Court Justice Lawrence K. Marks in November threw out an arbitration decision that said the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, which is controlled by the Orioles, owes the Nationals about $298 million for the team's 2012-16 television rights.

MASN was established in March 2005 after the Montreal Expos relocated to Washington and became the Nationals, moving into what had been Baltimore's exclusive broadcast territory since 1972. The Orioles were given a supermajority partnership interest in MASN, and when the parties could not agree on a rights fee for 2012-16, they appeared in April 2012 before baseball's three-man Revenue Sharing Definitions Committee, as required in the MASN agreement.

Manfred says on Tuesday he thinks the dispute eventually will return to that committee.