MLB teams may be realigned into new divisions after expansion; Manfred: More appealing to broadcasters

During today’s Little League Classic broadcast, where the New York Mets defeated the Seattle Mariners 7-3 in Williamsport, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred publicly stated that he envisions the league expanding in the near future and discussed the benefits of realignment at that time.

In the past, whenever Manfred was asked about potential MLB expansion, he insisted that the issue would only be considered after the stadium situations for the Athletics and the Tampa Bay Rays were resolved. Although the A’s have only just broken ground on their new ballpark and the Rays are still in the process of changing ownership with no new stadium finalized, Manfred was asked during the broadcast whether he thought expansion and realignment would happen next, and he responded clearly: “I think it will.”

Manfred also emphasized that expansion and realignment would happen together: “Expanding gives us a chance to geographically realign the divisions, which could reduce travel fatigue for players and make the postseason format even more attractive for broadcasters.”

“I think team owners now recognize that many great cities have a demand for Major League Baseball, and expansion gives us a chance to do something positive,” Manfred said. He has previously stated that he hopes to complete expansion before stepping down as commissioner in four years.

At the end of last year, Manfred mentioned that if expansion happens, it would mean increasing the league from 30 to 32 teams, resulting in each league—National and American—having 16 teams. The current setup of three divisions with five teams each could shift to four divisions of four teams each, and he noted, “Scheduling is easier with four-team divisions than five.” He also revealed that ideally, one of the new teams would be in the Eastern time zone and the other in either the Western or Mountain time zones.