4 weeks ago
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What if the New York Mets and Yankees were divisional rivals and rather than playing six interleague games per season, instead battled across 13 pivotal matchups with added postseason implications?
That could very well be in Major League Baseball's future after commissioner Rob Manfred revealed the possibility of geographical realignment on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball.
Although he didn't say if the 148-year-old National League and 124-year-old American League would be dissolved entirely, Manfred mentioned travel considerations as one reason that geographical realignment makes sense.
Asked about the possibility of MLB expansion — something Manfred wants in motion by the time of his planned 2029 retirement — the Commissioner said he sees the potential addition of two new teams as an opportunity to reorganize baseball geographically.
'I think if we expand, it provides us with an opportunity to geographically realign,' Manfred said during ESPN's broadcast of Sunday night's Little League Classic between the Mets and Mariners.
'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 you'd be playing out of the East and out of the West.'
Manfred is thinking about geographical realignment, which proved to be a touchy subject
Manfred also thinks it would help playoff ratings by ensuring teams play at a more accommodating time for their fans.
'I think our postseason format would be even more appealing for entities like ESPN because you'd be playing out of the East, out of the West, and that 10 o'clock where we sometimes get Boston-Anaheim would be two West Coast teams,' he said.
'That 10 o'clock slot that's a problem for us sometimes becomes a real opportunity for our West Coast audience."
The geographical realignment Manfred is discussing more closely resembles the NHL or NBA, where the leagues are divided by regions.
From 1903 to 2000, however, baseball worked under the National Agreement, which positioned the NL and AL as the game's major leagues and established the World Series.
Since then, the leagues have legally merged into a single entity. And with the implementation of interleague play in 1997 and the NL's 2022 adoption of the designated hitter, which brought MLB under a single set of rules, the barriers between the NL and AL are almost nonexistent outside of the standings.
Could the Mets find themselves in the same division as their nearest neighbor?
Would the Yankees welcome an additional seven games against their cross-city rival?
But while players would surely enjoy less travel, many traditionalists rejected the idea.
'Manfred confirms what we all knew,' sports radio host Evan Roberts wrote on X. '[Radical] geographic realignment is coming. Mets and Yankees in the same division is inevitable.'
The Yankee Report, a popular fan blog, wrote: 'A Yankees, Red Sox, Phillies and Mets division would be the most toxic division of all time.'
One potential issue with geographical realignment is that the league's big-market teams tend to be on the East and West coasts, meaning the wealthy Yankees, Mets and Phillies could be further motivated to outspend each other.
Meanwhile, a mid-market team like the St. Louis Cardinals could be motivated to spend less on free agents if they were in a division with the small-market Kansas City Royals.
As for expansion, Manfred didn't name any cities, but USA Today previously reported that Salt Lake City, Utah and Nashville, Tennessee remain the top two candidates.
