Commissioner Rob Manfred created quite a bit of buzz around the baseball world last week when he made comments on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball last weekend that suggested the league’s desired expansion to 32 teams could be coupled with a dramatic realignment of MLB’s current structure.
“I think if we expand, it provides us with an opportunity to geographically realign,” Manfred said on the broadcast. “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.”
The possibility of MLB following in the footsteps of other American sports, like the NBA and NFL, by adopting an eastern/western conference layout as opposed to the current AL vs NL structure is certainly an interesting one. Fans of teams on the east coast and even in the midwest have long bemoaned the late night games associated with west coast road trips, and Manfred’s suggestion that a geographic realignment could lessen the burden of travel on players throughout baseball’s marathon schedule is difficult to argue with. Fans have little reason to care about the desirability of postseason games for broadcasters like ESPN and FOX, but both Manfred’s comments and simple common sense would indicate that possibility will be highly appealing to the league, as well.
Of course, the downsides to a potential geographic realignment are obvious. Baseball is a sport steeped in history, and the loss of the AL/NL structure would necessarily complicate our view of that history. Had the league moved away from the AL/NL structure previously, would Aaron Judge’s chase for 62 home runs in 2022 have been nearly as noteworthy? Without a division between the two leagues, Judge would simply be seventh on the single-season home run leaderboard, rather than the AL record holder. And that’s before considering the possibility of lost rivalries. There’s several ways that MLB could look to realign geographically, but many proposals (including one from Mike Axisa of CBA Sports) would split up historic rivalries like Cubs/Cardinals and Dodgers/Giants. That would be a tough pill to swallow for those teams, who view their longtime rivalries as a key part of their team’s culture and history.
On the other hand, the distinction between baseball’s two leagues has been eroding for years now. The NL has adopted the designated hitter rule, the All Star game no longer determines home field advantage in the World Series, and the schedule has been altered so that every team plays every other team in at least one series per season regardless of league. That amount of inter-league play would guarantee that even rivalries split by this geographic realignment, like the Cubs and Cardinals in Axisa’s proposal, would still play each other on occasion. It’s also worth noting that many interleague rivalries, such as Mets/Yankees and Cubs/White Sox, would benefit from more games on the schedule each year if they were to be pushed into the same conference by geographic realignment.
Realignment on some level is inevitable, as with 32 teams it would be impossible to create six even divisions. Still, that doesn’t mean the AL/NL structure must be lost entirely. Stephen J. Nesbitt of The Athletic was among those to propose a realignment structure that would preserve the status quo for the most part, with only a handful of changes to the current structure as both leagues would move from three divisions of five teams to four divisions of four teams. Under Nesbitt’s plan, the Rockies and Rays would swap to the AL and NL respectively, but all other teams would remain in their current league and no historic rivals would be divided. Of course, maintaining what fans appreciate about the current structure would also mean maintaining many of its frustrations; late night games for fans on the east coast whenever their club takes a road trip out west, and a more much more extreme travel schedule for the players.
How do MLBTR readers feel about the possibility of geographic realignment coming to the majors? Would changing the league’s current structure so drastically detract from the sport’s history for little benefit, or with the leagues already more similar than ever is a major shakeup worth if it improves travel- and timezone-related experience for fans and players alike? Have your say in the poll below:
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