Commissioner Rob Manfred created fairly a little bit of buzz across the baseball world final week when he made feedback on ESPN’s Sunday Evening Baseball final weekend that prompt the league’s desired enlargement to 32 groups may very well be coupled with a dramatic realignment of MLB’s present construction.
“I feel if we increase, it offers us with a possibility to geographically realign,” Manfred mentioned on the published. “I feel we might save plenty of put on and tear on our gamers by way of journey. And I feel our postseason format could be much more interesting for entities like ESPN, since you’d be taking part in out of the east and out of the west.”
The opportunity of MLB following within the footsteps of different American sports activities, just like the NBA and NFL, by adopting an japanese/western convention structure versus the present AL vs NL construction is actually an attention-grabbing one. Followers of groups on the east coast and even within the midwest have lengthy bemoaned the late evening video games related to west coast highway journeys, and Manfred’s suggestion {that a} geographic realignment might reduce the burden of journey on gamers all through baseball’s marathon schedule is troublesome to argue with. Followers have little motive to care concerning the desirability of postseason video games for broadcasters like ESPN and FOX, however each Manfred’s feedback and easy frequent sense would point out that risk might be extremely interesting to the league, as nicely.
In fact, the downsides to a possible geographic realignment are apparent. Baseball is a sport steeped in historical past, and the lack of the AL/NL construction would essentially complicate our view of that historical past. Had the league moved away from the AL/NL construction beforehand, would Aaron Choose’s chase for 62 dwelling runs in 2022 have been practically as noteworthy? With no division between the 2 leagues, Choose would merely be seventh on the single-season dwelling run leaderboard, fairly than the AL document holder. And that’s earlier than contemplating the potential for misplaced rivalries. There’s a number of ways in which MLB might look to realign geographically, however many proposals (together with one from Mike Axisa of CBA Sports activities) would break up up historic rivalries like Cubs/Cardinals and Dodgers/Giants. That may be a tricky tablet to swallow for these groups, who view their longtime rivalries as a key a part of their workforce’s tradition and historical past.
Then again, the excellence between baseball’s two leagues has been eroding for years now. The NL has adopted the designated hitter rule, the All Star sport not determines dwelling discipline benefit within the World Collection, and the schedule has been altered so that each workforce performs each different workforce in at the least one sequence per season no matter league. That quantity of inter-league play would assure that even rivalries break up by this geographic realignment, just like the Cubs and Cardinals in Axisa’s proposal, would nonetheless play one another now and again. It’s additionally value noting that many interleague rivalries, corresponding to Mets/Yankees and Cubs/White Sox, would profit from extra video games on the schedule annually in the event that they have been to be pushed into the identical convention by geographic realignment.
Realignment on some stage is inevitable, as with 32 groups it could be unattainable to create six even divisions. Nonetheless, that doesn’t imply the AL/NL construction have to be misplaced fully. Stephen J. Nesbitt of The Athletic was amongst these to suggest a realignment construction that might protect the established order for essentially the most half, with solely a handful of adjustments to the present construction as each leagues would transfer from three divisions of 5 groups to 4 divisions of 4 groups. Below Nesbitt’s plan, the Rockies and Rays would swap to the AL and NL respectively, however all different groups would stay of their present league and no historic rivals could be divided. In fact, sustaining what followers admire concerning the present construction would additionally imply sustaining a lot of its frustrations; late evening video games for followers on the east coast each time their membership takes a highway journey out west, and a extra rather more excessive journey schedule for the gamers.
How do MLBTR readers really feel about the potential for geographic realignment coming to the majors? Would altering the league’s present construction so drastically detract from the game’s historical past for little profit, or with the leagues already extra related than ever is a serious shakeup value if it improves travel- and timezone-related expertise for followers and gamers alike? Have your say within the ballot under:
