MLB notes: Future realignment shouldn’t have to spell the end of AL and NL

Realignment is coming to Major League Baseball It s not a matter of if but when At various point in the next decade MLB is going to expand to teams Commissioner Rob Manfred has stated in the past he hopes to have the two new clubs chosen by the time he retires in and in the past few days at the Little League Classic he suggested that moment would be a good opportunity for the league to geographically realign its divisions Rob Manfred says that MLB could geographically re-align if the league expands via ESPN pic twitter com w g LIUS SNY SNYtv August I think expansion and realignment are related in my mind Manfred reported I think if we expand it provides us with an opportunity to geographically realign I think we could save a lot of wear and tear on our players in terms of progress And I think our postseason format would be even more appealing for entities like ESPN Geographic realignment would have its benefits Besides better movement and easier logistics Manfred also highlighted how the league would gain from having more games featuring west coast teams in its late-night TV time slot rather than the current situation where countless of those games feature an east coast gang playing well after p m in their home realm But left unsaid was one important foreseen drawback It could mean the end of the American and National Leagues Related Articles Bats silent again as Red Sox fall to Diamondbacks for third straight loss Farm record Do Red Sox have MiLB reinforcements to replace Roman Anthony Source Red Sox placing struggling reliever on injured list Red Sox demolished by Guardians in bullpen championship gone awry Red Sox rookie on injury I ve never dealt with something like this While there is no longer any meaningful difference between the AL and NL now that both use a designated hitter and every club plays each other at least once a season the leagues have been foundational pillars of the sport for more than a century Throwing that history away in favor of a sterile Eastern and Western League concept would be short-sighted self-defeating and unnecessary Why MLB can achieve its goals without doing away with the AL and NL I ll explain The American and National Leagues have been two of baseball's foundational pillars throughout the sport's existence AP Photo Julio Cortez The circumstance for the AL and NL So why are the AL and NL worth keeping around For starters baseball is a sport steeped in history and tradition and for more than a century the AL and NL have served as the through line connecting generations of baseball greatness If you win American League MVP you become part of a lineage that traces back to Lou Gehrig Ted Williams and Mickey Mantle If you win National League MVP you join a club that includes Stan Musial Jackie Robinson and Willie Mays It ll be a long time before Eastern League MVP carries that kind of weight The leagues also serve as the reference point for virtually every statistical achievement you can imagine Watch any baseball contest and at specific point you re bound to hear mention of how a sportsman has the best batting average in the AL for the month of August since Wade Boggs sometime in the s or chosen stat along those lines Toss out the leagues and a lot of that goes away History and tradition is nice but I m not naive to the fact that for owners and league executives money talks So for those inclined to chase the almighty dollar keep in mind that doing away with the AL and NL could come with selected financial drawbacks too A lesson to keep in mind Less is more Suppose you scrap the AL and NL and create a blockbuster northeast division that includes the Red Sox Yankees Mets and Phillies What a gauntlet that would be Almost every week you d have a big time matchup featuring two of the biggest brands in the sport What could go wrong Well if those big matchups are happening every week then eventually they ll lose their luster People will lose interest and the league will effectively water down what are now a few of its marquee matchups Having the AL and NL to provide certain degree of separation has helped ensure crosstown rivalry series like the Yankees-Mets maintain their juice even if those teams play more often now than they ever did before I d also caution MLB to look at how realignment has impacted college sports While there are particular exceptions the greater part schools who have left their historic homes to join a shiny new neighborhood like the SEC Big Ten and ACC have looked up years later to find their wallets fat but their trophy affair bare Schools that were accustomed to winning all the time suddenly find it s not so easy when you re in the same conference as powers like Ohio State Michigan Penn State and USC That division I suggested with the Yankees Red Sox Mets and Phillies Every year someone has to come in last and as we ve seen here in Boston lately that s not good for business Now even if the AL and NL were to stay realignment is going to have to happen anyway once MLB expands to teams So how can the sport best set itself for success in the years and decades to come Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber celebrates after clinching the home run derby tiebreaker at this summer's MLB All-Star Match AP Photo Brynn Anderson Small divisions a necessary evil When I started writing this column I was fully prepared to argue in favor of larger eight-team divisions instead of smaller four-team ones Four teams just doesn t feel substantial enough and for a important portion of MLB history both the American and National Leagues had eight teams apiece Larger divisions would have better fit the sport s history and nature plus it would have naturally aligned with the league s current playoff structure Two divisions per league means two division champions who could advance straight to the divisional round leaving the next four teams to duke it out in the Wild Card series Here s the difficulty The math just doesn t work Several of you might disagree but I m a big fan of MLB s current scheduling model I love that every company plays each other at least once that teams within the same league match up at least twice in a home-and-home and that divisional rivals have four series each That to me is perfect The challenge is you really can t pull that off if you have eight teams in a division Hang with me for a second Let s say you play one three-game series against each of the teams in the opposite league and two series against each of the eight teams in your own league s other division That would leave just games to divide among the remaining seven teams in your division which equates to either nine or games per opponent That s only enough for three series per season Is that enough for a divisional rival I don t think so The numbers come together much better with smaller divisions Let s say we still have one series each against the opposite league s teams and two series against the clubs from your own league s other divisions That would leave games to divide up between your three division rivals which comes out to games per opponent enough for two three-game and two four-game series each Now we re talking This setup would also allow for the possibility of reducing the length of the regular season something Jayson Stark of The Athletic lately broadcasted is being considered Going with games per divisional opponent instead of or four three-game series would get you to games Or if you required to go with games which was the length of MLB s schedule for decades prior to expansion you could play a pair of two-game series to replace two of the three-game sets against non-division opponents Fewer games means less wear on players and as Stark noted a -game schedule would neatly divide all of modern baseball history into two eras games and games Even if the American and National Leagues remain after realignment it might make sense for a couple of teams to switch leagues to allow for sensible divisions The Rays might be an ideal candidate AP Photo Michael Dwyer What could new divisions look like So let s say we decide we re keeping the AL and NL and we re going with eight four-team divisions similar to how the NFL is structured Is it attainable to divide things up in such a way that also emphasizes geographic proximity Yes and it wouldn t be as complicated as you might think A couple of things before we get to my suggestion One we don t know where the expansion teams will be but according to a statement from USA This day in July Nashville and Salt Lake City are seen by MLB administrators as the strongest markets So for our purposes we ll go with those Two even though it would be best to preserve the existing AL NL dynamic and divisional structures as much as achievable there is precedent for shifting teams from one league to the other to help address several sort of imbalance We ve seen it with the Brewers in the Astros in and when I was trying to break up each league into groups of four one swap became apparent that would allow the whole puzzle to fall into place Here s what I would suggest if I were in charge AL East Baltimore Orioles Boston Red Sox New York Yankees Toronto Blue Jays Arguably baseball s preponderance iconic division remains largely unchanged Why mess with perfection AL Central Chicago White Sox Cleveland Guardians Detroit Tigers Minnesota Twins The current AL Central largely remains intact as well AL South Colorado Rockies Houston Astros Kansas City Royals Texas Rangers The Rockies in the American League Yes shifting the Rockies to the AL allows for the possibility of a south-central pod that would also keep the two Texas teams together The Royals would be a natural fit here too and if you look at a map of all current MLB clubs these four being grouped makes obvious sense AL West Las Vegas Athletics Los Angeles Angels Salt Lake City Expansion Club Seattle Mariners The remaining teams in the AL West are joined by a new geographically sensible rival Salt Lake City is a two-hour flight from Seattle and less than that from both Los Angeles and Las Vegas where the Athletics will presumably be by the time all this shakes out It s also in the Mountain time zone which would align better with the incumbent AL West clubs than the Rangers and Astros both of whom are in the Central NL East New York Mets Philadelphia Phillies Pittsburgh Pirates Washington Nationals Three current NL East teams are joined by the Pirates who become division rivals with their cross-state foes in Philadelphia NL Central Chicago Cubs Cincinnati Reds Milwaukee Brewers St Louis Cardinals The remaining four NL Central teams stick together Again no need to mess with a winning formula NL South Atlanta Braves Miami Marlins Nashville Expansion Organization Tampa Bay Rays Remember the swap I mentioned before In exchange for the Rockies the National League gets the Rays who would allow for the creation of MLB s first-ever deep south division The newly created NL South would feature both Florida teams the Braves as well as the new Nashville expansion club which would be only a four-hour drive from Atlanta and provide the Braves with their first true geographic rival since moving to the Peach State Given how big baseball is in SEC country it s kind of crazy how underrepresented the region has been throughout MLB history No more NL West Arizona Diamondbacks Los Angeles Dodgers San Diego Padres San Francisco Giants With the Rockies settled in the new AL South the remainder of the NL West remains as is Add it all up and you get four divisions that remain essentially unchanged two more featuring three existing division rivals with one newcomer and two new but geographically sensible divisions that would either preserve current rivalries or help foster new ones The league gets what it wants the players won t have to log quite so multiple miles and the sport preserves one of its deepest rooted traditions One can only hope that will be the affair when we look up five years from now and all of this is going down for real