With word that Commissioner Rob Manfred wants to expand and realign before the decade is out, why not make an MLB realignment proposal?
Look, we have many issues with Manfred. Who knew that we would find a baseball commissioner who would make us long for the days of Bud Selig? All that aside, this website has long believed that expanding the league to 32 teams and reworking to eight divisions is the correct final evolution of this process.
We are envisioning something that is structured like the NFL, at least before they added a seventh playoff team to each conference for no reason other than money. Every division would have an equal number of teams and be an even number. Each league would have an even number as well, making everything nice and symmetrical. Expanding beyond 32 is impractical and improbable for many reasons, but 32 is the sweet spot.
Word is that baseball does not want to do this (they would rather just eliminate leagues entirely), but we are going to propose it, anyway.
MLB Realignment Proposal: Who Are the Two New Teams?
The majors right now sit at 30 teams, meaning two will need to be added. For the purposes of this exercise, they are Nashville and Salt Lake City (or Utah as the case may be). These are two cities which would stand a strong chance of landing expansion franchises. Other cities which might have interest include Norfolk-Virginia Beach, Portland (Oregon), Montreal, Austin, San Antonio, Charlotte, and Indianapolis.
Before We Begin
Divisional Alignments
The American League and National League will be broken into four divisions with geographic notation: East, North, South, and West. Each division will have four teams.
Potential Schedule Alignment
We would propose this example of an imbalanced schedule to ensure that division rivals are paramount, but every team plays every other team:
- 14 games against division rivals (7 home, 7 away)
- 6 games against non-division league rivals (3 home, 3 away)
- 3 games against interleague rivals (3 game series, home/away alternates annually)
This adds to 162 games per season, the same as now.
Anything Else?
This exercise assumes that the Athletics will complete their move to Las Vegas within the next few years.
The AL realignment fell into place fairly easily based on the teams already there. The NL was the tough one, as some of these franchises landed in places that make geographic realignment less simple. We did the best we could without kicking any teams out of their current league.
MLB Realignment Proposal: American
Teams and divisions are listed in alphabetical order.
AL East
- Baltimore
- Boston
- New York (A)
- Toronto
AL North
- Cleveland
- Chicago (A)
- Detroit
- Minnesota
AL South
- Houston
- Kansas City
- Tampa Bay
- Texas
AL West
- Las Vegas
- Los Angeles (A)
- Salt Lake City/Utah
- Seattle
MLB Realignment Proposal: National
NL East
- Atlanta
- New York (N)
- Philadelphia
- Washington
NL North
- Chicago (N)
- Colorado
- Milwaukee
- St. Louis
NL South
- Cincinnati
- Miami
- Nashville
- Pittsburgh
NL West
- Arizona
- Los Angeles (N)
- San Diego
- San Francisco
Map Visualizations of the MLB Realignment Proposal
Click images to enlarge.
New AL Divisions
AL East
AL North
AL South
AL West
NL East
NL North
NL South
NL West
