The MLB Realignment Plan: Saving the Future of Baseball

Is geographical realignment in Major League Baseball's future? It would only help the game

In this post, I want to take a look at the possibility of division realignment in Major League Baseball. The MLB, similar to the NFL and unlike the NBA and NHL, is based on the traditions of the American and National Leagues, where geography is not the basis for each of the leagues. The NBA and NHL split their leagues into two "eastern" and "western" conferences, with divisions grouping the nearest geographic rivals. MLB's divisions do create geographic rivals, but most teams are not in the same division as their nearest physical rival (i.e. Mets-Yankees, Dodgers-Angels, Cubs-White Sox, Orioles-Nationals, etc.) Sure, regional rivalries against the Yankees and Red Sox exist for the Orioles, but wouldn't playing teams from Washington, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh with regularity be even better? In a league that struggles to fill its stadiums to capacity (outside of the major population areas of New York, Boston, Philadelphia and occasionally a few others), nightly attendance could increase across the league if the Orioles are playing more Tuesday night games against the Nationals rather than the Oakland Athletics.

Next season, the Houston Astros will be moving to the American League West, which will cause a chain of events. Each division will now have 5 teams, and the American and National Leagues will each have 15 teams. This means that interleague play will occur every day of the season, amplifying the DH vs. no-DH rules of both leagues. My thoughts are, why stop there? Now baseball traditionalists (and trust me, I'm usually one of them) will hate the idea of scrapping the traditions of the American and National Leagues and starting from scratch, but if baseball wants to continue to draw fans to its stadiums and maintain interest throughout the season, my proposal would help accomplish that goal:


Here are some of the parameters highlighting the major changes:

• Moves from 162 game schedule to 156 games (for scheduling ease)
• Note: While this is not back to the 154 game schedule it once was, the 156 game schedule is a good compromise in order to create for easier scheduling and to ensure that the playoffs get underway before it is snowing in Boston
• **Check below the new divisions for how scheduling games would work**
• The Designated Hitter will now exist across both leagues and in all games
• There will still be two, 15 team leagues/conferences
• These could still be called American and National, or could be scrapped for something as simple as Eastern and Western (For this example, I am going to use Eastern/Western)
• Within the two conferences, there will be two divisions: one with seven teams and the other with eight
• The playoffs which just expanded this season from eight teams to 10, will now expand to 12, with 4 wild cards per league
• The playoffs would be played in bracket style, with the Eastern Conference champion meeting the Western Conference champion in the World Series.
• Each division winner would receive a first round bye
• The four wild cards in each league will play a wild card round to determine who will play the division winners. 
• The wild card round will be a best-of-three series played on three consecutive days (home/away/home) in order to prevent an excessive layoff for the division winners
• The wild card winners would meet the division winners in the Divisional Series, which will remain a five game series as it currently stands.
• The Championship and World Series would both remain best-of-seven series

And without further ado, here are your four new MLB divisions as a part of the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference:

Eastern Conference

Atlantic Division:

Toronto Blue Jays

Boston Red Sox

New York Yankees

New York Mets

Philadelphia Phillies

Pittsburgh Pirates

Baltimore Orioles

Washington Nationals

• Four of the five current AL East teams stick together in this division
• This division has the shortest average distance between teams, by far
• This division will undoubtedly have the highest average payroll and media attention of any division
• The Orioles, Nationals, Pirates and Blue Jays will benefit heavily in attendance from the increased regional matchups
• With the Orioles being in this division aside, this will be my favorites division - the rivalries, the payrolls, media attention, and playoff implications every night - the Atlantic Division will be a treat

North Division:

Cleveland Indians

Cincinnati Reds

Detroit Tigers

Chicago Cubs

Chicago White Sox

Milwaukee Brewers

Minnesota Twins

• NFC North, meet AFC North. But this is baseball. The cities of the NFL's NFC North are grouped with Cincinnati and Cleveland to create a division with rivalries that already exist across several sports, including college's Big Ten Conference
• Like the NFC North and the Big Ten, will be filled with gritty, unspectacular yet successful rivalries and teams. Should be a treat.

Western Conference

South Division:

Miami Marlins

Tampa Bay Rays

Atlanta Braves

Texas Rangers

Houston Astros

Kansas City Royals

St. Louis Cardinals

• I realize Florida and Georgia do not necessarily constitute "Western," but there were some compromises that had to be made.
• The Braves and Cardinals will be the least happy of these teams because they are forced to give up old rivalries with their former division opponents.
• The in-state rivalries in Missouri, Texas, and Florida will make this a unique division, though.

Pacific Division:

Colorado Rockies

Arizona Diamondbacks

Seattle Mariners

San Francisco Giants

Oakland Athletics

Los Angeles Angels

Los Angeles Dodgers

San Diego Padres

• This division makes as much sense as any, with all teams west of the central time zone competing against each other
• The five California teams in one division should create some great rivalries
• Not too many other exciting comments or observations

Scheduling: 

8 team divisions (Atlantic/Pacific):

• 12 games vs. 7 other division teams = 84 games
• 6 games vs. 7 other conference teams = 42 games
• Total conference games = 126 games 
• 6 games vs. 5 determined opponents from other conference (rotates on 3 year basis) = 30 games
• Total games = 156 games 

7 team divisions (North/South)

• 12 games vs. 6 other division teams = 72 games
• 6 games vs. 8 other conference teams = 48 games
• *6 games vs. designated permanent rival within Division (in addition to 12 other games against that team) 
• Total conference games = 126 games (120 for ATL and MIL) 
• 6 games vs. 5 determined opponents from other conference (rotates on 3 year basis) = 30 games
• Total games = 156 games

*The permanent rival matchups for the 6 additional inter-division games will be:

St. Louis - Kansas City

Texas - Houston

Miami - Tampa Bay

Cleveland - Cincinnati

Chicago - Chicago

Detroit - Minnesota

**Atlanta - Milwaukee

**Since there are an uneven amount of teams in each division, one matchup had to be between two teams from both of the 7-team divisions. Atlanta and Milwaukee isn't exactly a natural rival, but all the others are natural, geographic rivals. The Braves used to play in Milwaukee, so that's about all I've got. While not ideal and it gives Atlanta and Milwaukee 6 less conference games than everyone else, it is about the only major sacrifice that had to be made by any of the 30 teams.

Will realignment happen in baseball? I think so, eventually. Whether it is in five years, after the Astros move to the American League doesn't go as smoothly as planned, or in 25 years, who knows. But as the era of TV broadcasting rights and revenue becomes seemingly more important than the ballpark experience, TV companies will want to have matchups against regional rivals that will boost ratings, while teams will want to play more regional rivals in an attempt to drive people to come to the park each night. While Bud Selig has been an agent of major change in baseball, I feel that this plan is maybe too drastic for his liking. Traditionalists and historians will HATE the idea of scrapping the American and National Leagues as we know them, but at a certain point, it will become evident that realignment will be necessary for the success of Major League Baseball.