Apparently for the A's too.
MLB 2025: The A's are Playing Where Now?
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Manfred: ‘Sunday Night Baseball’ Deal on Deck, Realignment Likely
ESPN is eyeballing a chance to go local with an MLB.TV carve-out.
www.sportico.com
During his Sunday night drop-in, Manfred also discussed the potential for a broad realignment of MLB, one that would presumably eliminate the canonical AL and NL in favor of a more travel-friendly geographical clustering.
The hypothetical realignment would coincide with the expansion of MLB to 32 franchises. In one scenario, a four-club “Northeast” division would include near-neighbors the Yankees, Mets, Phillies and Red Sox, while a “Mid-Atlantic” cluster would house the Nationals, Orioles, Pirates and Guardians.
“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 … that 10 o’clock time slot where we sometimes get Boston-Anaheim would now be two West Coast teams. And so that slot, [which has been] a problem for us sometimes, becomes a real opportunity for our West Coast audience.”
Rob Manfred says MLB expansion could lead to geographical realignment in divisions
Manfred has said he would like MLB to set expansion wheels in motion before the end of the decade
www.cbssports.com
Not sure I understand, Boston would still be making West Coast trips, unless they plan on not having East and West play each other during the season.
It's Rob fuckin' Manfred... we mere mortals are Not to be privy to his 'superior intellect'.
That northeast division is pretty top-heavy with upper-tier teams that are typically in contention for the playoffs.
That won’t be good for postseason ratings. I have my doubts about his plan.
I'm typically anti-Manfred on everything but...I kind of like that realignment, at least on the surface.
Do they have 16 teams to make a viable Western Conference? Or are we going back to the old days where Cincinnati and Atlanta are considered “west”?
Based on that chart, yes, with the help of an expansion team.
Other than to determine the two teams in the world series, there isn't really a reason for a National League and American League anymore. I would love to see some kind of realignment happen, even though that northeast is really playoff heavy.
I'm sure the rest of the country that isn't New York City would be happy, but this realignment means you'd never ever get another Subway World Series (Yankees vs. Mets) again.
Any realignment would help the Mariners, who currently have the longest travel schedule in the Major League. Keep them West of the Mississippi and the Rockies.
I suppose it would also help w/ the jet-lag that eastern teams experience when having to travel like say, from Philly to L.A. to play a night game against the Angels on Monday like my Redlegs had to do Sunday. But so far there seem to be no visible ill-effects as 'we' are going for a SWEEP tonight, sorry about your pain @1001001
but them's the breaks.p.s. I don't like this cockamamie idea of the 'boy-genius' Robbie to do away w/ the AL vs. NL one little FUCKIN' bit
It's not like they're really "leagues" at this point — they got merged into MLB in 1999, and any league presidents since then have been honorary titles. And now that the NL has the designated hitter all the time, there isn't even that difference between them. I know it's a tradition, but I'm not sure it's one that serves a purpose anymore.
Back in the day, I would've hated the dismantling of the American and National leagues. But at this point, between interleague play and the universal use of the designated hitter, the line between the two has been blurred so much that they're pretty much irrelevant.
Edit: Ninja'd!
Edit: Ninja'd!
I didn't even think about the interleague play. Especially now that everybody plays everybody during the season, it takes all the mystery out of "Will NL Team X's pitcher be able to handle AL Team Y's star batter?" because chances are they faced each other already.
Like some have remarked, that Northeast Division is basically a group of death.
As a Jays fan, I'm glad to be out of the mess of the AL East with four other teams that are always competing.
As for NL vs. AL, the MLB needs to somehow recognize this as a changing of an era, like the AFL-NFL merger is remembered as a moment in history, an evolution.
As a Jays fan, I'm glad to be out of the mess of the AL East with four other teams that are always competing.
As for NL vs. AL, the MLB needs to somehow recognize this as a changing of an era, like the AFL-NFL merger is remembered as a moment in history, an evolution.
Aren't they already at that point? With the AL/NL simply mirroring the AFC/NFC.
I would prefer to keep the AL/NL split. Even though there aren't really any differences between the two leagues anymore, that's one tradition that should remain. It would be like if the NFL got rid of the AFC and NFC.
There's one proposal I like that assumes the two expansion teams would be one of Portland or Salt Lake City (joining the AL West) and one of Nashville or Charlotte/Raleigh (joining the new NL South), and to create balanced four-team divisions two current teams would switch leagues, with the Rockies moving to the AL and the Rays moving to the NL. That would create two leagues of sixteen teams, each with four divisions of four teams.
AL East: Red Sox, Yankees, Orioles, Blue Jays
AL North: Guardians, Tigers, White Sox, Twins
AL South: Royals, Astros, Rangers, Rockies
AL West: Mariners, Portland/SLC, A's, Angels
NL East: Mets, Phillies, Nationals, Pirates
NL North: Reds, Cubs, Brewers, Cardinals
NL South: Marlins, Rays, Carolina/Nashville, Braves
NL West: Diamondbacks, Padres, Dodgers, Giants
This preserves both the traditional AL/NL split as well as most of MLB's biggest divisional rivalries (losing the Mets/Braves is unfortunate, but they'd still play each other several times per season, and in exchange it restores the Pirates/Phillies rivalry) and avoids a straight geographic East/West split.
There's one proposal I like that assumes the two expansion teams would be one of Portland or Salt Lake City (joining the AL West) and one of Nashville or Charlotte/Raleigh (joining the new NL South), and to create balanced four-team divisions two current teams would switch leagues, with the Rockies moving to the AL and the Rays moving to the NL. That would create two leagues of sixteen teams, each with four divisions of four teams.
AL East: Red Sox, Yankees, Orioles, Blue Jays
AL North: Guardians, Tigers, White Sox, Twins
AL South: Royals, Astros, Rangers, Rockies
AL West: Mariners, Portland/SLC, A's, Angels
NL East: Mets, Phillies, Nationals, Pirates
NL North: Reds, Cubs, Brewers, Cardinals
NL South: Marlins, Rays, Carolina/Nashville, Braves
NL West: Diamondbacks, Padres, Dodgers, Giants
This preserves both the traditional AL/NL split as well as most of MLB's biggest divisional rivalries (losing the Mets/Braves is unfortunate, but they'd still play each other several times per season, and in exchange it restores the Pirates/Phillies rivalry) and avoids a straight geographic East/West split.
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