Over the course of the last month, I have been travelling with my wife. I have been out of the country for chunks of that time and just like taxes and death itself, the third certainty of life was still occurring. Rob Manfred was ruining the best sport in the world.
There seems to be a growing likelihood that the league will soon welcome two expansion teams, which is cool. With the possible addition of two expansion teams, Rob Manfred is doing what he does best and is ruining the cool news with uncool ideas. He tossed around the increased possibility of a sharp realignment of divisions, and it has baseball fans up in arms.
His proposition would likely mean that the Mets and Yankees are in the same division, and since his precious Yankees would never switch leagues, it would likely mean that the Mets become an AL Team which is disgusting to even think of. This would be the same for the rest of the league as teams like the Cubs and White Sox would share a division plus the Dodgers and Angels too.
The concept in and of itself is stupid to me as the current setup has worked for so long with no issues. If player travel fatigue is truly the concern, maybe these people should stop getting paid $500 million. I mean, how soft can they be that the constant traveling is a cause for the league-wide shakeup?
I cannot stress enough how annoying this would be for more than half of the fanbases in the league. A look into the potential realignment includes these divisions:
- AL Northeast – Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, Phillies
- AL Mid-Atlantic – Orioles, Nationals, Pirates, Guardians
- AL Great Lakes – Twins, Tigers, Brewers, Blue Jays
- AL Southeast – Braves, Marlins, Rays, Alleged Expansion Team
- NL Midwest – Cubs, White Sox, Cardinals, Reds
- NL Central – Rockies, Royals, Rangers, Astros
- NL Southwest – Dodgers, Padres, Angels, Diamondbacks
- NL Northwest – Mariners, Athletics, Giants, Alleged Expansion Team
Please excuse me for a moment as I need to clean up all this vomit on my desk. I mean this was hard to read, write and live through. I am sorry you had to experience this as well, but now you see my frustration.
The Mariners and A’s as NL Teams? The Braves and Pirates as AL Teams? Yuck. Just yuck.
I disagree with the whole realignment, but it’s actually so easy to realign divisions while largely respecting the AL/NL divide. It does not matter much anymore since the DH is universally used and strategy is the same league-wide, but some things should remain the same. We are a society after all and the Mets are a National League ballclub.
What do you think of this alignment?
- NL East – Mets, Phillies, Pirates, Nationals
- NL West – Dodgers, Padres, Diamondbacks, Giants
- NL North – Cardinals, Cubs, Brewers, Reds
- NL South – Braves, Marlins, Rays, Alleged Expansion Team
- AL East – Yankees, Red Sox, Blue Jays, Orioles
- AL West – Angels, A’s, Mariners, Alleged Expansion Team
- AL North – Guardians, White Sox, Twins, Tigers
- AL South – Rangers, Astros, Royals, Rockies
With this, only two teams switch leagues and it’s the Rockies and the Rays which would affect no one if we are being honest. The integrity of most divisions remains mostly intact while two expansion teams are added in (assuming we get a team in Portland and one of Charlotte or Nashville). In this, the Yankees and Red Sox stay together as do the Phillies and Mets and the Dodgers and Giants, which are three of the biggest rivalries in all of sports.
This should be the formula that Manfred sticks to. Shake it up and make the travel easier for the poor wittle players making more money than I could ever dream of while also maintaining some glimpse of the traditional alignment we all know and love.
Speaking as a lifelong Mets fan, the Subway Series is sacred and special each year. Making it a more normal occurrence as divisional foes would take away all the shine it provides. They belong in different leagues with their own historical rivals in their own divisions.
Keep baseball fun and let’s all work together to send Manfred far away from the sport we love. I am sick of hearing bad idea after bad idea from one guy who always seems to find success in bringing them to fruition.
I would love to hear your opinions and ideas for realignment if you were to have the final say. Let me know what you think!