Big changes may be coming to Major League Baseball.
Commissioner Rob Manfred joined ESPN’s broadcast of the Little League Classic on Sunday night.
During a conversation with Karl Ravech, Eduardo Pérez and David Cone, he hinted that the MLB landscape could look significantly different soon.
Specifically, Manfred touched on expansion and realignment. MLB hasn’t expanded since adding the Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays in 1998, but several cities have been lobbying to get teams.
Portland, Salt Lake City, Nashville and Orlando are the furthest along in those efforts, but Charlotte, San Antonio and a return to Montreal have also been discussed.
Nothing has been confirmed, but Manfred indicated it could happen in the future while expressing a desire to get the cities selected. Currently, there are 15 teams in each league, making interleague play a daily occurrence.
With expansion could also come realignment, Manfred said.
“I think if we expand, it provides us with an opportunity to geographically realign,” he said. “I think we could save a lot of wear and tear on our players in terms of travel. And I think our postseason format would be even more appealing for entities like ESPN, because you’d be playing out of the east and out of the west.”
Realignment based on geography could mean a dramatic shift in baseball’s framework with the American and National league potentially being replaced. Imagine a world where the White Sox and Twins aren’t division rivals of the Tigers and the Mets and Yankees are in the same division.
MLB’s divisions haven’t changed since the Astros moved from the NL Central to the AL West in 2013.
Jim Bowden of The Athletic created new divisions based off the news. It included a “North Division” made up of the Tigers, Blue Jays, Guardians and Reds.
What is your reaction to the potential changes?
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