Major League Baseball is in the middle of its longest expansion drought since the league first expanded in 1961. MLB has not added any new teams since the Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays joined the league in 1998, though commissioner Rob Manfred has said he would like the expansion wheels to be in motion by the end of his term in 2029.
“Those [expansion] teams won’t be playing by the time I’m done but I would like the process along and [cities] selected,” Manfred, who intends to retire after his term ends, said last February.
Adding two new teams would allow MLB to even the two leagues out at 16 teams apiece, making daily interleague play no longer necessary. It also creates the opportunity for realignment. Manfred hinted at the possibility of wholesale realignment based on geography during an appearance in ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball booth this past weekend.
“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.”
Geographic realignment would open the possibility of creating Eastern and Western Conferences similar to the NBA and NHL, and essentially render the American League and National League meaningless. For a sport steeped in tradition, replacing the leagues with conferences would be a drastic change, one that may not be received well by some fans and even those within the game.
Expansion would not necessitate eliminating the AL and NL. It would only make it easier to accomplish. Here is one possible realignment scenario in which the priority is geography, not maintaining the AL and NL:
Some historic rivalries (Cardinals/Cubs and Dodgers/Giants) get broken up for the sake of geography, plus putting those four big-market teams in one Northeast Division potentially creates a scenario where only 2-3 make the postseason each year rather than possibly all four. The league’s broadcast partners may not like that, and ultimately, money talks.
There are several groups courting an expansion MLB franchise, including the Portland Diamond Project, Big League Utah (Salt Lake City), Music City Baseball (Nashville), and the Orlando Dreamers. Charlotte, Montreal, and San Antonio are among the other cities speculated as expansion possibilities. Last year we broke down the pros and cons of expansion.