Fans Lose their Minds as MLB Commish Rob Manfred Talks Realignment & Expansion

 Leave it to baseball fans to jump the shark, if you will, and make wild assumptions online all while acting like whatever Rob Manfred was trying to say on Sunday Night Baseball when posed with the question of expansion and realignment, is the absolute end of the world. 

Yankees and Mets in the same division? No?

 

Here is what Manfred said:
"I can see that. The first two topics (expansion and realignment), "I think if we expand, it provides us with an opportunity to geographically realign," Manfred 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." 

Here is what most fans and pundits acted like Manfred said, (and we are making this up based on the reaction): "We are going to realign the divisions so the Mets and Yankees are the same division with the Phillies and Red Sox, so every single division game is a God Damn blood bath." 

Obviously, Manfred never said this; never alluded to it. But if you ask the dopes on X and social media, this is what was implied. 

Take a gander. 

Then The Athletic's Jim Bowden put forward a proposed realignment that had the Mets, Phillies, Yankees and Red Sox all in the same division, and people started losing their minds even further. Somewhere people forgot that it was just a prediction! 

Could the Yankees and Mets end up in the same division? Sure, theoretically anything is possible. We see the Nets and Knicks play in the same division in the Eastern Conference of the NBA. Same with the Devils, Rangers and Islanders in the NHL. 

But, if this were to happen it will likely only happen if baseball splits the leagues between east and west. Again not entirely impossible, but not likely either. 

Baseball has been defined by the two leagues: A.L. and N.L.  since forever.  Creating a division with four big market teams like the Mets, Yankees, Phillies and Red Sox, while having a very lukewarm division like the Rockies, Royals, Rangers and Astros (for example), isn't exactly going to do favors for baseball's competitive balance, which it cares so much about. 

Baseball loves those revenue dollars in the smaller markets when the big boys come to town, especially in-division. Think Dodgers-Rockies or Dodgers-D'Backs, or Mets-Marlins. 

Plus we don't know which cities will get teams. We know the A's are leaving Sacramento in two-years for Las Vegas in 2028. We also know that the Rays might leave St. Petersburg, Florida by then as well. Where the Rays play in 2028 is anyone's guess. Downtown Tampa Bay? Orlando? Charlotte, North Carolina? Who knows. But their relocation is going to impact expansion. 

Charlotte is one of the expansion possibilities including: Nashville, Portland, San Antonio, Montreal, Salt Lake City, and, lord knows, why not throw in Mexico City at this point as others. 

The guess here is baseball is not going to want to fracture built up rivalries too much. That means, they will want to keep rivalries like Mets-Braves, or Yankees-Orioles somewhat intact. 

Here are two possible realignments we agree with: 

Stephen Nisbett of the Athletic put forward the most logical idea. Keep the N.L. and A.L. separate leagues, and realign from there based on geographic location with four divisions in each league. That means the Mets, Phillies, Washington Nationals and Pittsburgh Pirates comprise the new N.L. East, while the Yankees, Red Sox, Blue Jays and Orioles remain as the A.L. East. He has Colorado and Tampa switching leagues. That's the only real movement. It's the best proposal I have seen. 

Another possibility is this: Add one expansion team to each league. Let's say Nashville in the National League and Portland in the American League giving each league 16 teams. Then split them in half.

 Eight teams comprise the N.L. East (Mets, Phillies, Braves, Marlins, Nationals, Reds, Pirates, and Nashville), and eight teams comprise the N.L. West (Dodgers, Giants, Padres, D-Backs, Rockies, Brewers, Cardinals, and Cubs). 

Eight teams comprise the A.L. East (Yankees, Red Sox, Rays, Orioles, Blue Jays, Guardians, Tigers, White Sox) 

Eight teams comprise the A.L. West (Royals, Twins, A's, Mariners, Angels, Rangers, Astros, and Portland). 

Regardless, expansion is coming, and coming soon. But, not before baseball figures out what to do with its next CBA, which coming due in 2027; and all indications right now are there could be a lockout. So stay tuned.