Soon MLB will add two new teams, marking the first expansion of baseball since the addition of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and Arizona Diamondbacks in 1998. It will be three decades since we've had new teams and there's already talk about what to do with them.
Remember that baseball has had expansion over the years ... including massive expansion from 1961 to 1998. During that time, MLB grew from two eight-team leagues to two 15-team leagues ... nearly doubling in size. In 1969, both the American and National Leagues split into two divisions, creating a playoff. In 1994, both leagues split into a three division format we still use today (though some of the teams have moved around a bit). In 2013, the Houston Astros switched from the NL to the AL to create two 15-team leagues split into three 5-team divisions.
Adding two new teams disrupts that clean breakdown. So what will we do?
Let's start this exercise by stating that Nashville and Salt Lake City will be the cities receiving new franchises. That isn't a lock, as there are places like Charlotte, Portland and Montreal who feel they have a shot at getting a team but those two are the strong favorites.
JUST ADD ONE TEAM TO EACH LEAGUE
The easiest fix is just to add one of the teams to each league. We've had uneven leagues and divisions before. For a while, the NL Central had six teams while the AL West only had four until the Astros moved made all the divisions even. So you could put Nashville in the NL Central and Salt Lake City in the AL West to give each of those divisons six teams while the other four divisions stay at five. Nashville fits with the NL Central footprint better while Salt Lake City would fit nicely alongside Seattle and Las Vegas.
CREATE A FOURTH DIVISION WITH CURRENT AL/NL SETUP
What will likely happen is we get a fourth division in each league. With 32 teams, making a clean realignment plan where each league consists of four 4-team divisions would be the best looking way to do this. I'm not as big into this idea as most, because I think small divisions like this lean towards bad teams getting a shot at the playoffs just because of geography. We've seen it in the NFL where teams with losing records win divisions.
NL EAST: NY Mets, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington
NL CENTRAL: Chi Cubs, Colorado, Milwaukee, St. Louis
NL SOUTH: Atlanta, Cincinnati, Miami, Nashville
NL WEST: Arizona, LA Dodgers, San Diego, San Francisco
AL EAST: Baltimore, Boston, NY Yankees, Toronto
AL CENTRAL: Chi White Sox, Cleveland, Detroit, Minnesota
AL SOUTH: Houston, Kansas City, Tampa Bay, Texas
AL WEST: Las Vegas, LA Angels, Salt Lake City, Seattle
In the American League, Salt Lake City enters the West while the two Texas teams will help form the new South. Tampa Bay leaves the East for the South, while Kansas City joins them from the Central.
The NL is a bit tougher. Atlanta and Miami leave the East to help form the South with expansion Nashville. Pittsburgh got back to the past and rejoins the NL East that they were in a long time ago. The NL West loses Colorado, who now moves to the Central. Cincinnati is sort of the odd man out and moves South from the Central.
FOURTH DIVISION WHILE SWITCHING LEAGUES FOR TWO TEAMS
Of course, there is an idea floating around that Colorado and Tampa Bay could switch leagues to help with the geography. This would be a much better option for continuity among the divisions and a better geographic fit.
NL EAST: NY Mets, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington
NL CENTRAL: Chi Cubs, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, St. Louis
NL SOUTH: Atlanta, Miami, Nashville, Tampa Bay*
NL WEST: Arizona, LA Dodgers, San Diego, San Francisco
AL EAST: Baltimore, Boston, NY Yankees, Toronto
AL CENTRAL: Chi White Sox, Cleveland, Detroit, Minnesota
AL SOUTH: Colorado*, Houston, Kansas City, Texas
AL WEST: Las Vegas, LA Angels, Salt Lake City, Seattle
The main differences would be that Tampa Bay now goes to the NL South, Cincinnati gets to stay in the NL Central, and Colorado makes sense with the teams in the AL South rather than in the NL Central (and they fit better with those teams than Tampa Bay). If they go to 4-team divisions, this is my favorite setup.
FOUR TEAM DIVISIONS WITH MASSIVE REALIGNMENT
Let me start by saying that I am so against this idea, but it's out there. Rob Manfred could entertain one of the most controversial plans of his commissioner-ship ... and that's saying something.
In 2000, MLB took over and eliminated the AL and NL being separate entities and those designations are really just names now (like the AFC and NFC in football). We have seen teams switch leagues a couple times, most notably the Milwaukee Brewers to the NL and Houston Astros to the AL. But a massive realignment where we throw out the traditional league structure is something that's being discussed. Here is what it could look like.
AL NORTHEAST: Boston, NY Mets, NY Yankees, Philadelphia
AL ATLANTIC: Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Toronto, Washington
AL SOUTHEAST: Atlanta, Miami, Nashville, Tampa Bay
AL NORTH: Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, Minnesota
NL MIDWEST: Chi Cubs, Chi White Sox, Milwaukee, St. Louis
NL CENTRAL: Colorado, Houston, Kansas City, Texas
NL MOUNTAIN: Arizona, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Seattle
NL PACIFIC: LA Angels, LA Dodgers, San Diego, San Francisco
The American League is basically an Eastern Conference now, while the National League is the Western. Maybe they just ditch the NL and AL and go to "Eastern" and "Western". Eh. Ironically, the AL Southeast and NL Central would be the same divisions as I had before. But this is too drastic to accomplish ... what?
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