Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred did not hesitate to broach the subject of expand to a 32-team league in the not so distant future. The topic of expansion has been a constant topic of discussion as MLB has sought to add new markets in major cities currently without a baseball team.
In a recent report from ESPN baseball expert Jeff Passan, the North American cities of Charlotte, Nashville, Salt Lake City, Portland (OR), San Jose, Austin, Vancouver BC and Mexico City are all considered viable metropolitan areas . who could support a Major League Baseball franchise.
According to Passan, the only obstacle to making expansion happen is the instability of new stadium negotiations with the Tampa Bay Rays, the ongoing drama surrounding the Oakland Athletics’ move to Las Vegas and baseball’s current collective bargaining agreement which expires in December 2026.
Adding all these factors together, it doesn’t look like the expansion will happen until around 2030. But with the talk of expansion comes the controversial and hotly debated topic of realignment of divisions.
The addition of two more MLB franchises could result in changing the division structure we’re currently accustomed to and drastically altering some of the game’s most historic rivalries. The American League and National League becoming tied at 16 teams each due to expansion, the creation of Eastern and Western conferences (subscription required) was recently proposed by former and current CEO Athleticism baseball insider Jim Bowden.
The breakdown of these two hypothetical conferences proposed by Bowden would look like this: Each conference would be made up of four teams divided into four newly designated geographic divisions by region. Bowden places the Philadelphia Phillies in the Eastern Conference East Division, a potential four-team juggernaut that excludes the Atlanta Braves.
Eastern Division
Yes, you read that right. This proposed division would feature the Phillies in the same division as the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees, in addition to current National League East rivals the New York Mets. It’s hard not to admit that the idea of Bowden in the East Division is actually pretty cool. Having these four fan bases competing against each other would add new drama to an old game.
That’s what Bowden had to say about his four-team East division.
“You would have the New York rivalry of the Yankees and Mets combined with two of the other biggest markets in sports, Boston and Philadelphia,” Bowden writes. “All four would compete in the same division, without a single small-market team having to worry about payroll disparities.”
Although Bowden’s proposal for such a division is quite sound, it is not without its critics. The Phillies and the Braves are in the midst of a renewed rivalry it made for some of the most exciting moments of the last two seasons. Of course, the rivalry with the Mets would still be intact, but there’s something disappointing about potentially erasing divisional competition from the Phillies and Braves.
Bowden’s realignment ideas are purely hypothetical. Maybe MLB will go with eight team divisions instead of four, and that’s all moot. Elsewhere, fans of the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals probably aren’t happy to see their own historic rivalry threatened by Bowden’s proposal.
For now, we’ll wait and see how future expansion plans develop.
