There has been a lot of discourse lately about a possible MLB expansion and restructuring. Even commissioner Rob Manfred weighed in on it. I figured this was a great time to not only unveil how I would restructure the professional baseball league, but also a surprise to get things started.
First of all, I am not a proponent of restructuring or reshaping in any fashion. I like things how they are. Why change what’s perfect, you know? But, with that being said, change is inevitable and, as they say, the only constant. I did one of these a while ago for the NFL and had a lot of fun with it, so let’s get funky with it.
For a long time now, since I am football-first, I have felt that if a city has a National Football Conference football team, its baseball team should also be in the National League and vice versa. There is no actual reasoning for this, and it produces a lot of conundrums, like a city having multiple teams in either league or only a team in one league or the other. I’ll try to overcome that, but sometimes it’s impossible.
One thing to note: I know there are storied rivalries that might be lost in this process. I’m not keeping those in mind here. It strictly a geographical lens for the most part.
National to National
Let’s tackle the NL-NL debacle. That means teams like the Tampa Bay Rays are going to the National League, but we’ve got to keep things even on both sides. I’m not including the possible expansion teams since that just adds to the chaos.
In total, we would need the Rays, Tigers, Twins, Mariners and Rangers to flip from the American League to the National. There are obvious teams like the Yankees, White Sox and Angels I left off because of the two-teams-per-city caveat that I need to address shortly.
From the National League, the Marlins, Reds, Cardinals, Rockies and Pirates all need to switch. That leaves the dual-team cities, but since those work themselves out, I’ll leave those teams be. Why make this chaotic after all?
So, to recap, before we revamp and restructure the divisions in pro baseball, here are the new leagues: American — Blue Jays, White Sox, Yankees, Angels, A’s, Red Sox, Orioles, Royals, Guardians, Astros, Marlins, Reds, Cardinals, Rockies, Pirates; National — Phillies, Giants, Mets, Braves, Nationals, Dodgers, Brewers, Padres, Cubs, Diamondbacks, Rays, Tigers, Twins, Mariners, Rangers.
Things kind of make sense this way. Sure, Milwaukee isn’t the same as Green Bay, but the Brewers and Packers are close enough to put them in the National side of things. The only thing here that I don’t like the most is St. Louis should stay in the National League to follow their football team to L.A., but this isn’t perfect. If that’s the biggest issue I have, this is pretty successful.
Re-drawing the map
Alright, now that I have the leagues more balanced in my eyes, I’m going to redo the divisions. I know they’re pretty fair as they sit, but with the new leagues, they need to be redone.
AL East — Blue Jays, Yankees, Red Sox, Orioles, Marlins
AL Central — White Sox, Guardians, Reds, Royals, Pirates
AL West — Angels, Astros, Cardinals, Rockies, A’s
NL East — Mets, Braves, Nationals, Phillies, Rays
NL Central — Brewers, Cubs, Tigers, Twins, Rangers
NL West — Giants, Dodgers, Diamondbacks, Mariners, Padres
I’m not a perfect man, nor do I claim to be, but in my eyes, these divisions are awesome and a lot of fun. If the league does move to 32 teams, it would have to be structured like the NFL, with four divisions in each league comprised of four teams each.
I challenge you to make a better reimagining within these parameters. I want to see what I’m over looking here to see what could be changed.
Reach Brandt Young at 910-247-9036, at [email protected], or on the Sampson Independent Facebook page.