An MLB expansion looks and feels like a matter of when, not if.
Of course, the league evidently has to make some decisions regarding the Oakland Athletics and the Tampa Bay Rays, but it wants to have 32 teams at some point.
There are several possibilities for a new franchise: Charlotte, Nashville, Las Vegas, and others.
MLB insider Jim Bowden, a former general manager who now works at The Athletic, proposed a new division alignment plan this week.
He offered a solution for MLB that involved eliminating the American and National League and replacing them with the Eastern and Western conferences.
Instead of six division with five teams each, MLB would have, under that hypothetical plan, eight divisions of four teams each.
They would be geographically configured for proximity.
The plan is not perfect because there would be extremely weak divisions and others with too many contenders vying for precious few postseason spots.
The “East” division in the Eastern Conference looks like the most intense of all.
This would ruin lives pic.twitter.com/YEC0E1enDL
— Liam Fennessy ☕️ (@LiamFennessy_) February 7, 2023
The Boston Red Sox were bad in 2022, but reached the American League Championship Series in 2021 and continually invest to try and compete.
The Philadelphia Phillies just made the last World Series, although they couldn’t win.
The New York Yankees have had a winning record every season since the mid-nineties, and the New York Mets have put together an incredibly impressive roster and have the largest payroll in baseball.
There you have it: four legitimate contenders fighting for a couple of postseason spots at best, depending on several factors.
That division, if ever enforced, would be really something.
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