https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6560162/2025/08/18/rob-manfred-mlb-expansion-comments/
Commissioner Rob Manfred can see MLB expanding and geographically realigning.
“I think if we expand, it provides us with an opportunity to geographically realign,” Manfred said on the ESPN broadcast of the Little League Classic between the Mariners and Mets. “I think we could save a lot of wear and tear on our players in terms of travel. 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. That 10 o’clock slot that’s a problem for us sometimes becomes a real opportunity for our West Coast audience.”
Manfred has said he wants to have the locations of two new teams picked out by the time he retires in 2029, although the clubs won’t yet be playing. But Manfred has long said league expansion will follow after the Rays and the Athletics complete their long-running quests for new stadiums.
27 comments
The real silver lining is the “by the time he retires in 2029”
“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”
Manfred accidentally admitting he hasn’t followed baseball since 2009
Too bad we have to wait until then. He is a moron.
So what two cities will pay $1 billion for new 35,000 seat stadiums? Plus another six cities $50-$100 million for minor league stadiums?
AL east
Red Sox
Yankees
Blue Jays
Orioles
AL South
Rays
Astros
Rangers
Royals
Al North
Twins
Guardians
White Sox
Tigers
AL West
Mariners
Angels
Utah/Portland Team
A’s
NL East
Mets
Phillies
Pirates
Nationals
NL South
Marlins
Nashville team
Braves
NL North
Brewers
Cubs
Reds
Cardinals
NL West
Dodgers
Giants
Padres
D’backs
Contract the Rockies.
What are we looking at here? 32 teams, 16 make the playoffs?
Eventually you might as well turn the playoffs into the NBA and just do the top 8 teams. Rivalries be damned. The amount of division games has drastically dropped anyways
Good.
“I think we could save a lot of wear and tear…”
Translation: We can save money on travel because our owners don’t like paying for anything and would surely love a cut of that expansion fee.
Sounds like the west is where expansion is likely to occur? So perhaps Portland and Salt Lake?
Give Portland an MLB team and get the Sonics back in Seattle who says no
He woke up and felt like he needed another billionaire living off league welfare instead of being willing to build a winner. But seriously, one more team is probably worth hundreds of millions of dollars more in revenue a year, regardless if an owner wants to actually build a winner. Just extorting the billion or so for a new stadium then pocketing the tax rebates would be worth it.
Whatever he does, the Braves will get the shit end of the stick. That much is for certain.
Dang, can NC get a team?
Orioles Yankees Red Sox Phillies
Pirates Mets Nationals Guardians
Reds (North Carolina expansion team) (Tennessee Expansion Team) Braves
Marlins Rays Astros Cardinals
Blue Jays Tigers White Sox Twins
Cubs Royals Rangers Brewers
Diamondbacks Angels Athletics Rockies
Padres Giants Mariners Dodgers
Good. Put the Brewers back in the American League.
They can’t even fill stadiums in some places now. How about giving a city and owner that wants to win a chance
If they were to do something like that, maybe 4 divisions of 8 could be cool. Division winners make playoffs as top 2 seeds, followed by 4 wild cards in each league.
East Conf North:
Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, Blue Jays, Guardians, Pirates, Orioles, Phillies
East Conf South:
Marlins, Rays, Braves, Nationals, Reds, Nashville, Astros, Rangers
West Conf Midwest:
Twins, Brewers, Cubs, Cardinals, White Sox, Royals, Rockies, Tigers
West Conf Pacific:
Mariners, Portland, Padres, Diamondbacks, Giants, Athletics, Angels, Dodgers
I think I like where this is at? DC feels like it belongs in the northeastern group but there’s just too many teams up there and DC is the farthest south. Rockies are in no man’s land too, but at least they’re only a state away from their nearest division rival, the Royals. Thoughts?
They should have done this years ago. With the universal DH, everyone playing each team at least once each season it was just a matter of time anyway. Some rivalries will go down, but new ones will emerge. They also need to revisit having teams in Florida. After spring training baseball is not needed in Florida. MLB anyway. They like the minor league games and college games, but the attendance figures are just not good. I get Florida is a big enough market, but move the teams to places that will actually support the teams.
I think he’s thinking more about a Western and Eastern conference like NBA and NHL. Less East teams playing out west, and vice versa. Look at NHL schedule format they play within their conference except for two games each year against every team from the other conference.
Realignment +2 teams one east one west
MLB East
Boston-NYY-NYM-Baltimore-Washington-Atlanta-TB-Miami-Philly-Pittsburgh-Cleveland-Cincy-Toronto-Detroit-Milwaukee-(Nashville)
MLB West
CHC-CHW-Minnesota-STL-KC-Houston-Texas-Colorado-Arizona-SD-LAA-LAD-SFG-As-Seattle-(Portland)
Keeps all of the super historic rivalries together (Boston/NYY, CHC/STL, LAD/SFG)
West will always have more travel but greatly limits the west coast swings so the worst is Central time on a somewhat regular basis out west. Milwaukee is furtherest Eastern team out west and Cubs/White Sox furtherest Western team out east.
Cool manfraud. Now do what’s right and put teams back in Montreal and Oakland
Going to very controversial, but there’s no reason to hold onto the American and National League anymore with integrated rules. Just have it be East and Western Conference with 4 or 6 divisions.
Not the point, but this was not free to read, at least for me
Manfred has _NO_ business being anywhere near a decision-making role for MLB.
He’s not addressing the myriad issue that have come from the 94 and 95 strikes, and the TV mess-ups. Players are _not_ going to agree to any of Manfred’s crazy ass payment ideas.
I’d hazard a guess that if Kennesaw Mountain came back, he’d kick some ass
If they add Nashville, what are the odds the are in Atlanta’s division?
They should expand to Nashville and SLC.
